They say the devil is in the details. But in Durham, the Blue Devils are in the details—and numbers:
22
In 40 minutes of basketball on Tuesday night, freshman center Kyle Filipowski went from zero to hero. Leading the Blue Devils in scoring against the Fighting Irish, the Westtown, N.Y., native made quite the comeback, pivoting from his scoreless performance in Virginia last weekend to a showcase of strength and skill that manifested in the form of a 22-point tally next to his name. He did this with a handful of mid-range jumpers and a hefty count of layups, also adding four points from the line to his total. He drained 100% of his free throws, reinforcing the idea that’s been circulating college basketball discussion all week: Filipowski knows how to work the charity stripe.
15
After a long-running streak of success—no losses since Jan. 29—Duke women’s basketball fell on the road to Virginia Tech Thursday. Hokie senior center Elizabeth Kitley posed a huge threat within the arc while her teammate, junior guard Georgia Amoore, took care of the ball from deep. Splitting it evenly, the two players had a combined 40 points on the night, enabling Virginia Tech to defend its home court in Cassell Coliseum.
These shot opportunities didn’t come from nowhere. Duke gave up 15 turnovers throughout the game, sacrificing its time with the ball and letting the Hokies make the best of their 45% team field goal season average. At this point in the season, 15 turnovers from the Blue Devils is right around their average, which sits at a lofty 14.9 per game. These slips—a combination of nine Virginia Tech steals and sloppy ball control by Duke—were, and are, arguably the squad’s kryptonite. A stellar defense works wonders in a basketball game, sure, but a team has got to be able to hold onto the ball in order to put a winning number of points on the scoreboard. More than a dozen turnovers in a single game, as the Blue Devils head into ACC tournament play, does not bode well.
100
On the West Coast last Sunday, Duke women’s tennis celebrated a centennial of sorts. The Blue Devils took a cross-country trip to Seattle, Wash., for ITA National Team Indoors where they met Oklahoma, Stanford and Washington for a series of matches. Graduate transfer Cameron Morra served a victory on the court, defeating Huskie junior Sarah-Maude Fortin in a singles match that would mark her 100th collegiate career singles win.
After fumbling their doubles matches against Washington earlier in the day, the Blue Devils quickly avenged their earlier losses by clinching the first singles set on every court, ultimately going on to win four consecutive matches that put an end to the competition. Morra wiped out Fortin quickly, going 6-3 and 7-5 in the first two sets, respectively, to wrap the match up neatly and seal that three-digit achievement to her name. The Rockville, Md., native now holds an all-time singles record of 100-40.
3
It is a truth universally acknowledged that things get faster with the progression of time: cars, the internet, butter production—and the Blue Devils.
At Clemson last weekend, Duke track and field took part in a few events—just enough to drop three new school records right before the ACC Indoor Championships. Senior Halle Bieber already held the school record in the 60m dash, but broke it again on Friday afternoon, finishing the race in just 7.41 seconds. She threw another record in the mix, too, sprinting through a later 200m race in just 23.66 seconds to scrape past the standing record by just 0.05 seconds.
The third broken record came from freshman sprinter Lauren Tolbert, whose rookie season has already brought four finishes in the top five spots of Duke program history in the 600m, 800m, distance medley relay and now the 400m dash. She finished this double rotation around the indoor loop in a lightning-quick 52.59 seconds, barely staying in front of fellow-Blue Devil Megan McGinnis, who finished the same race in 52.67 seconds—second-best on the all-time record sheet.
With three new numbers at the top of Duke track and field history, the Blue Devils zoomed through the Virginia Tech Challenge Friday in a similar style and are preparing for ACC Indoor Championships next.
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.
Sophie Levenson is a Trinity sophomore and a sports managing editor of The Chronicle's 120th volume.