HALFTIME: Duke 26, Albany 25

Opening the NCAA tournament on their home floor, the familar environment hasn't been too friendly to the Blue Devils so far.

At the half, fourth-seeded Duke leads 13th-seeded Albany 26-25 at Cameron Indoor Stadium as the Blue Devils look to kickstart a deep tournament run.

The story of the first 10 minutes of the first half was Duke’s defensive intensity, which has made life tough for the Great Danes. The length of Rebecca Greenwell and the defensive prowess of Ka’lia Johnson has fueled the Blue Devils' zone on the perimeter and forced Albany to spend much of the shot clock looking for players to pass the ball to. In addition to two early shot-clock violations, Duke forced the Great Danes into nine turnovers and 31 percent shooting in the first half.

The matchup to watch coming into the game between Albany forward Shereesha Richards and Duke All-American Elizabeth Williams has not disappointed. Although Richards had her way in the post early, Williams and the Blue Devils' post defense did a solid job holding the junior to just eight points on 3-of-8 shooting. Williams' four blocks have been especially important early and set the tone for the rest of the squad.

Despite getting out to an early 18-10 lead, Duke let Albany back into the game due to a plethora of unforced turnovers. The Blue miscues led to shots early in the shot clock for the Great Danes and compromised the strong defense Duke was playing in the half court. With 4:25 remaining in the first half, Albany was able to grab back the lead of the game at 22-20 and showed that it would not go away easily.

Coming into the tournament, three-point shooting was one of the biggest keys for the Blue Devils. Duke has connected on 5-of-7 attempts from beyond the arc with Greenwell leading the way with four threes of her own. The Blue Devils will look to stay hot from deep and pull away in the second half.

Here are some observations from the first half:

• Both teams are looking to push the pace. This has really hurt the Duke guards, who don’t seem to be equipped for the quicker pace and have thrown numerous poor passes in transition.
• Albany has looked to pressure and trap full-court after every made basket or free throw, and has been rewarded with 16 points off turnovers.
• Duke committed 14 giveaways and forced only nine Albany turnovers.
• Although they are severely undersized, the Great Danes are outscoring the Blue Devils 12-6 in the paint and are only being outrebounded by two at halftime.
• The Blue Devils are doing a good job defending the 3-pointer and have only allowed two triples in the opening half 20 minutes.