There are a lot of things you can teach in basketball.
Height isn't one of them.
Duke's size advantage propelled the No. 8 Blue Devils to another easy win Tuesday, a 34-point cushion against a Buffalo team with just three 6-footers. Had Duke executed better in other facets of the game—namely reducing its 20 turnovers—the spread could have been even bigger.
The Blue Devils grabbed a program-record 69 rebounds Tuesday, demolishing a much smaller Buffalo squad on the glass. The Bulls, despite their lack of size, entered the game averaging 55.3 rebounds per contest but only managed 31 against an imposing Duke front line that includes seven players standing 6-foot-3 or taller. Twenty-eight of the Blue Devils' boards came on the offensive glass, just three fewer than Buffalo's rebounding total.
But despite the wide margin both on the stat sheet and on the scoreboard, a sloppy first half left much to be desired for head coach Joanne P. McCallie.
"I thought we got out-fought, I thought we got out-scrapped [in the first half]," McCallie said. "Rebounding is not for the faint-hearted.... How many times did we sort of have a rebound and then they got it? That kind of stuff can't happen. The intensity has to start from the beginning, and I don't think ours did."
Elizabeth Williams, Duke's most experienced post weapon, got off to a quick start in the paint, pouring in the first four points of the night to set a dominant tone for the evening.
At 6-foot-3, Williams—a three-time All-American and constant shot-blocking threat—said she takes it upon herself to assert herself down low early in the game, no matter whether or not she faces a favorable size matchup, as was the case Tuesday.
"It's kind of in my mind every game, because one of our team focuses is to get the ball inside, even from the very first play," Williams said. "We did have the advantage inside obviously because of our size, but it's something that, from an individual standpoint, I know I can get the job done in the paint."
The high-low game worked to perfection in the first half, as the post trio of Williams, senior Amber Henson and sophomore Kendall Cooper developed a rhythm passing from the free-throw line down to the block for point-blank finishes. Cooper finished with four of Duke's 17 assists and Williams and Henson combined for four more.
On the defensive end, Duke's talented length caused problems for Buffalo, beginning the full 94 feet from the basket. McCallie employed a full-court press at times Tuesday, sticking freshman forward Azura Stevens in the middle to bother the Bulls' ball-handlers.
At 6-foot-5 with incredibly long arms, Stevens is the ideal person to stick at the top of the press, where she caused multiple deflections and helped form daunting traps for Buffalo to handle. She also scored 12 points and grabbed seven rebounds in just seven minutes of action.
Still, the press and the defense in general didn't generate the disruption McCallie was looking for: a defensive swagger, one that ripped the ball away from people.
"As far as Azura in the front, when she really gets down and focuses, she can do a lot of nice things—deflections, forcing them sideways, tipping balls. She does a nice job," McCallie said. "We still only had 12 steals, which is kind of interesting, we only had a couple at half so we picked up a lot more in the second half. We only had three blocks against a team that was quite a bit shorter, so there are some areas that we really need to work on."
In addition to the 26 points from Williams and Stevens, Duke also got 11 from freshman Erin Mathias, six from sophomore Oderah Chidom, four apiece from Henson and freshman Lynee Belton and two from Cooper.
It wasn't all roses for the Blue Devil forwards, though. Duke's frontcourt didn't respond well to Buffalo's aggressive matchup zone, as forwards and centers combined to commit 13 of the Blue Devils' 20 turnovers Tuesday. McCallie and her staff are still in pursuit of a comprehensive 40-minute performance; unforced giveaways are one of the major stumbling blocks currently holding her team back.
Asked about the fact that the decorated Williams is just Duke's sixth-tallest player, Buffalo head coach Felisha Legette-Jack gave a response that summed up the challenges posed by the Blue Devil's embarrassment of riches down low all too well.
"That's not fun—and that's not funny either. We've got to up against that every possession," Legette-Jack said. "It's not [just] their size—it's their talent."
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