Duke's defense smothered Temple for 40 minutes, and the Blue Devils' offense wasn't too far behind as No. 6 Duke beat the Owls 87-52 Monday in Cameron Indoor Stadium.
Together, senior center Chante Black and freshman guard Shay Selby led the offensive charge, scoring 15 points and 14 points, respectively. For Selby, the total was a new career high.
And although the Blue Devils (12-1) scored 87 points, they won the game with intimidating and entirely overwhelming full court pressure. Senior guard Abby Waner never found her shooting touch, but she led Duke on defense with six steals-an impressive number, even though head coach Joanne P. McCallie was more excited about another.
"[Our team was] just really extraordinary in the effort," McCallie said. "A statistic I was told was that Abby had 14 deflections as a single player. I've never heard of that kind of stat. That sort of symbolizes the kind of intensity that we're trying to play with, and I think that the team did a great job playing with that intensity."
You could see it on the Owls' faces-as soon as Duke started to score, the Blue Devils used their athleticism to disrupt Temple's flow and were able to take advantage of the Owls' tentative play.
"They're big, they're athletic," Temple head coach Tonya Cardoza said. "Their guards are just as big as our post players. They're long, and they just have so many different bodies that they can throw at you."
And as it so often happens in basketball games that are played that way, good defense turned into strong offense and easy opportunities. In addition to torturing Temple the entire night with hawkish defense, Waner became Duke's playmaker with six assists.
Selby was the primary beneficiary.
Shortly after entering the game, Selby scored her first basket off a beautiful Waner no-look pass. Less than a minute later, she found herself open for a three. By 5:08, Selby raced to the basket for yet another bucket off yet another no-look pass from Waner. Before the half was over, the freshman would have nine points in just seven minutes, all without missing a single shot.
"I think Shay's her own cat," McCallie said. "You see her spin move and its wild. She can cover a lot of territory with that spin.... She's very confident offensively and she has a lot to offer there. I think defensively, she's gotten really excited to catch up her defensive game to this level."
Temple (8-5) simply couldn't handle the pressure, and the final box score reflected it with the Owl registering 29 turnovers. Duke scored 47 in the first half alone, yet Temple didn't hit 47 on the scoreboard until a free-throw by senior forward Shanea Cotton with just 1:27 in the game.
By then, it was too late.
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