After an early scare from the Demon Deacons, the Blue Devils turned to seniors Elizabeth Williams and Ka'lia Johnson, and both delivered.
Despite trailing 26-10 early on, No. 10 Duke—led by their seniors' combined 33 points—stormed back to defeat Wake Forest 70-63 Sunday at Cameron Indoor Stadium. The win marks the 18th straight victory in the ACC opener for the Blue Devils and 41st consecutive win against the Demon Deacons, though that streak seemed to be in jeopardy early on.
"We'd like to come out stronger but the key is how we responded to that and I thought the team responded very well," head coach Joanne P. McCallie said. "Elizabeth showed tremendous leadership and aggression on the floor, which was really contagious."
Although Wake Forest (9-6, 0-1 in the ACC) had not beaten Duke (10-4, 1-0) since 1993, early on, the Demon Deacons played like they were the ones with 40-game winning streak.
Wake Forest jumped out to an 8-0 lead within the first three minutes, capitalizing off three turnovers from the Blue Devils and turning them into six points on the other end. Forward Dearica Hamby owned the Blue Devils down low, as the senior forward made her first three shots and grabbed two rebounds in the first five minutes.
Williams finally broke the drought for Duke after five scoreless minutes, converting on back-to-back layups to cut the lead to 10-4 with 13:34 remaining. But the bleeding was not done yet for the Blue Devils.
Wake Forest countered Williams' buckets by going on a 16-6 run, pushing the lead to 26-10, and by that point in the game, it did not seem like the Demon Deacons could miss. Through the first 10:40, Wake Forest shot 73 percent from the field opposed to Duke's 35.7 percent clip.
But unfortunately for the Demon Deacons, their hot streak would not last forever.
From that point on, Duke went on a 12-2 run—with six points coming from Williams—and a spinning layup from Oderah Chidom cut the lead to six at 28-22 with 7:29 remaining. After a layup by Taylor Campbell put the Demon Deacons back up by eight, the Blue Devils used an 8-2 run to move within two. Then, with 20 seconds remaining, Chidom converted another layup to give Duke its first lead of the day—a lead the Blue Devils would not relinquish.
"I expected [the slow start] but I didn't expect it to stay," McCallie said. "It was something you had to work through as a team, and we did. I thought we demanded of each other, I don't think anyone got too wild or crazy. I thought we just kept pushing."
From the 2:52-mark in the first half to the 15:53-mark in the second half, Duke held Wake Forest without a field goal. The Blue Devils extended their lead to 46-36 with 16:14 left in the game after back-to-back blocks by senior Amber Henson and Williams led to a 3-pointer from redshirt freshman Rebecca Greenwell and a three-point play from freshman Azura Stevens, as she snagged the lob from Greenwell and finished the play despite being fouled by Ataijah Taylor.
Wake Forest made a late push, going on a 10-4 run to cut the deficit to 64-58 with 6:04 remaining. The Demon Deacons hung around for the remainder of the contest, cutting the lead all the way down to four with 2:28 remaining on a Millesa Calicott 3-pointer, but failed to move any closer thanks to Greenwell and Johnson, who combined for 11 points in the final 10 minutes. Williams was key on the defensive end for Duke, adding two steals, one rebound and one block down the stretch.
"[Williams] pushed over the top, Ka'lia pushed over the top and you could just kind of see us get back to where we are," McCallie said.
As important as the win was to start ACC play on the right foot, Sunday's contest was also the Blue Devils' first opportunity to get a look at their team minus freshman Sierra Calhoun.
"It was just important for us emotionally to have everyone on the same page. It's definitely tough losing a player," Williams said. "Sierra's great, we love her. I think it was just important for us, the seniors, to make sure that the team focuses on each other and what we have with us today."
Calhoun—whose decision to transfer from Duke was announced 45 minutes prior to tip-off—left the Blue Devils averaging 10.1 points per game, and against Wake Forest, Duke looked to its bench to make up for the loss.
Junior Mercedes Riggs was the first in the game, as she came into the contest with 16:04 remaining in the first half. She averaged 10.9 minutes per game heading into the contest, though that number had dropped to 7.0 in the past three games. The junior college transfer played 13 minutes Sunday.
Senior Amber Henson also provided a boost for the Blue Devils, as she knocked down two 3- pointers within two minutes of coming off the bench in the first half. The bench—combined with Williams—kept Duke in the game in the first half, pouring in 14 points.
"You'll be seeing more of everybody. It's just that time of year," McCallie said. "Mercedes, Erin Mathias, some things of that nature. We'll grow our bench as we go, and that's the neat thing about a team. I don't worry so much about scoring, because I know it can come from a lot of places."
Duke will look to move to 2-0 in ACC play Thursday, as it plays host to Syracuse at 6:30 p.m.
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