Coming out of Friday’s 81-37 road victory over Clemson, head coach Joanne P. McCallie was all smiles.
The one thing she stressed to her team after escaping with a close 80-72 victory over Maryland last Monday was defense. And that defensive spark was exactly what No. 5 Duke (17-2, 8-0 in the ACC) had against the Tigers (5-13, 1-6), as the Blue Devils held their opponents to a 27.5 field-goal percentage overall and kept them scoreless in the last 7:51 of the game.
“I just thought we had a great team game, and everybody elevated the team in one way or another,” McCallie said. “We rebounded better in the second half, and I thought we were more aggressive in the second half.”
Duke held Clemson to its second-poorest shooting performance this season, finishing only 14-of-51 from the floor and making just 1-of-13 from behind the arc.
The Blue Devil defense also forced 22 Tiger turnovers en route to a 44-point victory.
“I think it’s really important to take each game one at a time, and I think for us, our team really listened,” McCallie said. “One thing I’m really moved by is that they were really listening to me about the points we gave up against Maryland [and] more than that, we talked about how people scored.”
The Blue Devils had 43 total rebounds and nine blocks, with Tricia Liston leading the scoring with 16, and Elizabeth Williams aiding with a team-high five blocks and 14 points.
“I loved Tricia’s game, she was very attacking and balanced, though I wanted her to rebound more,” McCallie said. “And Elizabeth, I liked her blocks, and she’s becoming a freshman leader for Duke and moving on to bigger things.”
Clemson got off to a strong start to take a 9-4 lead over the Blue Devils and remained in control of the game 25-22 with 5:22 remaining in the first half.
But Duke was not silenced that easily and went on a 15-2 run to end the first half and take the lead, continuing the momentum for the remainder of the game.
“When they work really, really hard to get certain things done, then you feel pretty good about what you’re doing out there,” McCallie said. “I think that was exactly the case tonight.”
With the win, the Blue Devils hold on to the top spot in the conference leading into their biggest home contest of the year tonight at 7 p.m. against Connecticut at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
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