Christmas Strikes Again On New Years Eve

After a 6-of-7, 15-point performance Monday night against North Carolina Central University, junior guard Karima Christmas had another great game against the Temple Owls, leading Duke to a 70-63 victory with career highs 23 points and 14 rebounds. Duke now owns a 5-0 record against Temple, and has won six straight games on New Years Eve.

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By no means was today’s Duke squad the same team that dominated in an 89-point victory against NC Central. The only player who seemed to play to Duke’s standards was Christmas, who led Duke in four categories at half time: points, rebounds, steals, and minutes.

“Karima had an incredible game for us. [She was] very consistent from start to finish,” head coach Joanne P. McCallie said. “She is very versatile as a player.”

The rest of the team? Not so successful. After twenty minutes of play, four of Duke’s starters combined for six points – and seven turnovers. Consequently, turnovers and poor shooting seemed to plague the Blue Devils throughout the entire game.

To the excitement of the Temple fans in McGonigle Hall, today’s game was unexpectedly close until the final minutes, with the lead changing six times. To Temple's credit, the Owls played an excellent game and never seemed to give up against a bigger and more skilled Duke squad. Down by six at the half, Temple battled to a four point lead with 11:48 left in the game. However, over the next eight minutes, Duke went on a 20-6 run that simply put the game out of reach for Temple.

The key to Duke’s success today was its 22 offensive rebounds. On a day when very little seemed to be working for Duke, these second chance points were the difference maker between a loss and victory.

On the upside, with ACC-conference play just one week away, today’s game against the Owls helped to expose of Duke’s greatest weaknesses.

The first, and most important - the Blue Devils take too many three-point shots even though they just aren’t the long-range shooting team they hoped to be. Four of Duke’s starters (coincidentally, the same four that I referred to above), combined for 0-of-7 three-point shooting. However, this problem transcends today’s game against Temple. On the season, the Blue Devils are shooting a pathetic 0.288 from beyond the arc. Sophomore Kathleen Scheer, whom Coach P described as being “a terrific shooter”, has gone 4-of-29 from three-point range.

In addition, Duke needs better defense inside the paint. With 6-4 Krystal Thomas and 6-5 Allison Vernerey, Duke boasts tremendous height in their backcourt. Against an unranked team like Temple, whose tallest player ins 6-3, Thomas and Vernerey should have a less-than-difficult time blocking shots and grabbing rebounds. However, today they combined for only six defensive rebounds and zero blocks. This statistic was especially depressing given the bigger and more skilled competition that will characterize the ACC.

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