CHESTNUT HILL, Mass.—Playing on the road against a Boston College team winless in ACC play, the Blue Devils watched the Eagles swoop in for the kill.
Behind the strength of 13 3-pointers, Boston College took down No. 15 Duke 60-54 Thursday night at the Silvio O. Conte Forum. The Blue Devils entered the game as the conference's top defense defending the perimeter, but Boston College caught fire from behind the arc, as guards Nicole Boudreau and Emilee Daley hit five triples apiece to help spring the upset.
A career-best 24 points from freshman forward Azura Stevens was not enough to salvage a win for Duke, which dropped to 2-5 away from home this season.
"For us, it was a very poor performance relative to our defensive leadership and communication," head coach Joanne P. McCallie said. "We did rebound, but we didn't defend and contest. We have to take those lessons."
Despite leading the ACC in 3-point shooting defense, Duke (13-6, 4-2 in the ACC) could not contain the Eagles (9-10, 1-5). Boston College's starting lineup featured four guards, counteracting the Blue Devils' imposing size in the frontcourt with sharp shooting from the perimeter.
Both teams shot worse than 40 percent from the field in the first half, but Boston College knocked down eight 3-pointers and kept the Duke offense out of whack early on. Outside of Stevens, senior Elizabeth Williams and redshirt freshman Rebecca Greenwell—who all finished in double-figures—only senior Ka'lia Johnson scored for the Blue Devils.
"We had three players in double figures, they had three players in double figures. It was kind of even throughout," McCallie said. "We didn't have anyone step up and neither did they—they just made more threes."
Within the first five minutes of the game, Boston College’s zone and full-court press disrupted the Blue Devils' offensive rhythm. The Eagles’ defensive pressure generated eight points off of nine Duke turnovers in the first half.
As the 17th-best 3-point shooting team in the country, Boston College took advantage of the Blue Devils’ lack of depth on the wing. But even after the Eagles overcame an early 9-0 deficit with a 27-7 run to surge ahead with 5:30 left in the half, Stevens was determined not to let the game get out of hand.
The Blue Devil forward scored 10 straight points for the Blue Devils to pull her team within six. When the halftime buzzer sounded, Duke had closed the lead to 35-30 thanks to an 8-3 run.
The Blue Devils opened the second half with a renewed sense of urgency. Duke again jumped out to a quick start, scoring the first seven points and regaining their first lead since the 13-minute mark of the first half on a pair of Elizabeth Williams free throws with 17:25 left.
The scoring streak would not last. Duke’s offense once again cooled off as Boston College took back the lead, extending it to 47-43 with 9:31 left on the clock after a Katie Quandt jumper. Duke's post players answered the initial run by the Eagles, as Williams and Stevens combined for eight straight points to put the Blue Devils ahead 51-47 with 5:32 remaining.
But then—once again—came the threes. After Boudreau scored all 18 points of her points in the opening 20 minutes, it was the other Eagle guards that knocked down shots down the stretch.
"In the first half, Boudreau got off to a really good start," Greenwell said. "So in the second half we tried to triangle-and-one her and put Ka'lia on her, and she did a good job shutting her down in the second half. But the other shooters just stepped up and hit a lot of good shots."
After a Greenwell layup pushed the Duke lead to five with 3:06 remaining, the Eagles suddenly came to life. Boston College drained three straight triples to regain the lead, 58-54. After a late layup by Stevens that cut the lead to two with less than four seconds remaining, guard Kelly Hughes sunk two free throws to ice the game for the Eagles and cap an 11-2 run.
"They were keying in on the paint, so we just tried to focus from the beginning of the game to try to get it from the inside-out," Greenwell said. "In the second half, we did a better job kicking it inside and then opening up some shots. They just did a really good job defensively and made a lot of good shots."
The Blue Devils will have to regroup quickly following Thursday's loss, as they will travel to No. 12 North Carolina Sunday at 5 p.m. looking to avoid their sixth consecutive road loss.
Nick Martin contributed reporting.
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