Connecticut defense stymies Blue Devils

Winning a basketball game while shooting less than 25 percent from the floor would be a difficult feat in any game. Doing so against a behemoth in the world of college basketball was too much to ask Monday night for Duke.

The difference between the Blue Devils and Connecticut was obvious from one look at the stat sheet—Duke making just 17-of-69 shots from the floor while the Huskies shot 45.1 percent. The Blue Devil offense struggled to push the ball up the court against Connecticut’s relentless full-court press. This often led to primarily individual efforts and forced jumpers to beat the shot clock.

“Our shots were often off-balance and rushed,” Duke head coach Joanne P. McCallie said. “And our shot selection was completely random.”

The lone bright spot for the Blue Devils was sophomore guard Chelsea Gray, who totaled a team-high 13 points—albeit on just 5-of-17 shooting—plus six assists and seven rebounds. Haley Peters and Richa Jackson both helped on the glass, combining for 18 rebounds, but the pair combined to make just 8-of-28 attempts from the floor.

In contrast, the Huskies’ top three scorers, Caroline Doty, Bria Hartley and Stefanie Dolson, combined to score 36 points on 50-percent shooting.

The emotionally draining loss certainly agitated McCallie after the game, as evidenced by her frank demeanor.

“I was extremely disturbed by the eight assists,” McCallie said. “We were too one-on-one oriented today.”

Although Dolson, the Huskies’ sophomore center, was sent to the bench early in the second half with three fouls, Duke continued to have trouble penetrating the pesky Connecticut defense and finishing its shots at the rim. The team was forced instead to take outside looks due to the Huskies’ relentless on-ball pressure, and for the first time all season, did not earn a trip to the charity stripe in the first half.