At the beginning of the Blue Devils’ season, there were a lot of unanswered questions about where Angela Salvadores would fit on this year’s team. The freshman was touted as Duke’s best incoming player—tabbed No. 5 in her class—but found herself at a crowded position as part of a top-ranked recruiting class that included four other guards. To add to that, the Leon, Spain, native was learning a new language, a new style of play and how to stay patient as her body recovered from a summer full of international competition.
Salvadores started the season off slowly, seeing limited minutes as Duke head coach Joanne P. McCallie cautiously worked her into the lineup, describing her as “worn out” before the season even started. The freshman opened her career with a zero-point, zero-assist showing in 10 minutes in the team’s first matchup against Pennsylvania, only confirming McCallie’s observation.
“As long as she focuses and she’s working hard, she’ll have her own breakthrough,” McCallie said earlier this season.
It took some time, but it appears that McCallie’s prediction has finally come to fruition.
Although Salvadores’ early-season play did not command attention in the box score, it still showed glimpses of the consistent, yet aggressive, player that has emerged down the stretch. The point guard had several highlights in the season’s opening games that displayed her passing and ball-handling abilities, like a behind-the-back pass to Rebecca Greenwell in an exhibition against St. Leo and a dribble between the legs of a Liberty defender en route to a fast-break assist.
“You definitely have to be aware every time she is on the floor because she can throw a no-look pass and it will just end up in your hands, so you have to be ready for it at all times,” Greenwell said.
After leading scorer Azurá Stevens was injured Feb. 1, the freshman guard has emerged as a reliable threat for a Duke offense that has struggled without Stevens. Salvadores has averaged 29.7 minutes per game since the departure of the 6-foot-6 forward—significantly higher than her season mark of 25.4 minutes per contest—and is making the most of her increased time on the court.
“I don’t think it was because of Azurá and [how she] wasn’t playing,” Salvadores said. “It was because I was more confident more of the time.”
The freshman is known for her ability to sneak the ball through defenders and create plays for teammates, and is putting on one of her best ball-sharing displays of the season when the Blue Devils need it most. Salvadores—who leads the team in assists per game with 3.3—has notched 15 assists in the past four contests, her best of any four-game ACC stretch this season.
“I’m known as a passer—I don’t want to be just a passer,” Salvadores said. “[My teammates] are very good. They are much better than my teammates in Spain, so it’s easier to pass to them than to pass in Spain, but I have to score more.”
Salvadores has followed through on her desire to become a bigger scoring threat, as she has reached double-figures in four of her last five games, including a career-high 19 points against Georgia Tech in Duke’s final home game of the regular season. The floor general has found her rhythm from beyond the arc, filling the void left by an injured Haley Gorecki and becoming a sidekick to sharpshooter Rebecca Greenwell from 3-point range, where she shoots 39.1 percent.
Despite the Spaniard’s 5-foot-10 stature, she has also helped compensate for Stevens’ absence in the paint. Salvadores has notched three or more rebounds in six of her last seven games, highlighted by a career-high seven boards against Florida State Feb. 11.
“She’s an interesting player. She’s very, very talented and she’s also very, very intense and she wants to win as much as anybody,” McCallie said. “She knows she can do more and wants to do more and she needs to keep doing more. It’s key.”
Even in the areas where the team has struggled all season, Salvadores has stepped up of late. Duke averages 18.7 turnovers per game and ranks in the bottom 10 teams nationally in the statistic, but Salvadores has produced three of her season’s four single-turnover performances in the seven games played without Stevens.
Salvadores’ contributions this season are even more impressive when considered in the context of the Blue Devils’ chaotic and unpredictable roster. This year’s Duke team has been anything but consistent in terms of both performance and available players, but Salvadores’ production has only improved as the team’s injuries have piled up.
“It was timely for us to have another scorer out there when we lost Azurá,” McCallie said. “It’s a good thing, but she’s definitely capable of big games for sure.”
The freshman’s scoring output has steadily reached 8.9 points per game—the fourth-best mark on the team—even though the players around her have constantly changed throughout the year. McCallie has started a school-record 13 different players and 15 different lineups this season, but Salvadores has proven herself as dependable resource for hard-fought, quality minutes, starting Duke’s last six games.
“I just want to win,” Salvadores said. “I don’t care what I have to do, I will do it. Every game is different, so I will do everything the team needs to win. It depends on the game, but I will do everything.”
This week at the ACC tournament, the Blue Devils may need just about everything Salvadores can give them.
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