In two of its three previous tilts against top-10 opponents, Duke squandered leads down the stretch.
Not this time.
The Blue Devils built a 23-point halftime lead against No. 8 Kentucky by shooting 61 percent from the floor despite committing 11 first-half turnovers. When the turnovers continued out of the gates in the second half and the hot shooting didn't, Kentucky pounced.
The Wildcats came out of the locker room determined to shoot better than their 23 percent clip in the first half, rattling off an 11-4 run in the first three minutes that forced Duke head coach Joanne P. McCallie to burn a timeout to settle her team. The Blue Devils blew a 15-point lead in the second half at Texas A&M Nov. 30 and a four-point cushion in the final minute against top-ranked South Carolina Dec. 7, and Kentucky was threatening.
A few minutes later, freshman Sierra Calhoun grabbed a rebound and threw a baseball pass to senior Ka'lia Johnson, who had leaked out downcourt. As the ball sailed through the air, center Elizabeth Williams beat everyone to the other end, receiving a touch-pass from Johnson and finishing a lay-up while drawing the fourth foul on Kentucky's Janee Thompson.
The three-point play stretched the Blue Devil lead back to 19 and put an abrupt end to Kentucky's best five-minute stretch of the afternoon. From there, Duke used its size advantage to beat up Kentucky in the paint and capture its first win against a ranked opponent in convincing fashion.
"This team was different this time," McCallie said. "When they were having a run or trying to have a run, I thought the stops were there and I thought they found each other."
A little more than a minute after her heave set up Williams' lay-up, Calhoun was on the receiving end of another long outlet pass for an and-one opportunity, this one from Johnson, who had a team-high six assists.
The Blue Devils shared the basketball Sunday, tallying 19 assists on 29 made baskets. Six players scored in double-figures for the second consecutive game, including 11 points from senior Amber Henson.
Feeding the post—both from guards on the perimeter and forward-to-forward in the high-low game—worked time and again, as Duke's frontcourt got position on the smaller Wildcats to rack up 42 points in the paint.
McCallie has noticed significant improvement in her team's interior passing, one sign that her young team is beginning to gel.
“What you’re seeing is our understanding where they can throw the ball to various teammates. There’s quite a variability there. You think about Azura [Stevens] and what her reach is, what your reach is to Elizabeth or Amber," McCallie said. "They were lobbing it in there too, just trying to find each other. You know we’re a young team. It doesn’t happen overnight.”
Duke also connected from long range Sunday, knocking down 6-of-14 triples. Redshirt freshman Rebecca Greenwell spearheaded that effort, drilling her first two 3-point attempts in the first half as the Blue Devils built a 49-26 lead.
Duke finished the first half making 11 of its final 12 shots, scoring in a variety of ways. In addition to the consistent output from Williams, Stevens and sophomore Oderah Chidom inside and the timely outside shooting, the Blue Devils also got to the line 34 times Sunday, converting on 25 attempts. Both those numbers tied Duke's season high.
"We can score points in a lot of different ways," McCallie said. "We've just got to play aggressively on both sides of the ball."
Greenwell, an Owensboro, Ky., native, sat out last season's 69-61 win at Kentucky as a redshirt recovering from a knee injury. Stripped of her homecoming, the 6-foot-1 guard stuffed the stat sheet in the first half Sunday, scoring 10 points on 4-of-5 shooting, grabbing four rebounds and handing out three assists.
“It felt great, especially with my family in the stands cheering me on," Greenwell said. "It was hard to sit out last year against Kentucky, but we played great against them last year. To go home for the holidays with this win is a great feeling.”
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.