NASHVILLE, Tenn. — No. 2 seed Duke began its NCAA tournament with a statement, bullying No. 15 seed Samford from start to finish en route to an 82-47 victory.
The Blue Devils scored the first seven points of the game, led by 18 at halftime and then went on a 15-0 run midway through the second half to put the game out of reach. The Bulldogs never came within 29 points of the lead after senior Kathleen Sheer’s layup with 13 minutes left put Duke up 59-30.
“We just wanted to come out with energy and show everyone that we were here to play from game one,” sophomore Tricia Liston said.
In an efficient offensive showing, Liston put up 22 points in her first start since Jan. 30. Turning the ball over just once, she made both of her 3-point attempts, all six of her free throws and missed just three shots overall.
“She is a starter, so don’t give her a lot of props for that,” head coach Joanne P. McCallie said. “She is a very heady player. She takes what the defense gives her and doesn’t rush.”
After playing half-court man-to-man defense for most of the first half, McCallie employed her trademark full-court press in the second half. The pressure turned out to be too much for Samford, which failed to score for nearly five minutes. During that stretch, the Bulldogs committed six turnovers, allowing the Blue Devils to stretch their lead to 36.
“They are really long and so on every pass there were hands in the passing lane,” Samford forward Taylor Reece said. “They are going to get some steals just because of that.”
The sizable lead allowed head coach Joanne P. McCallie to rest freshman Elizabeth Williams, who is playing through a stress fracture in her right shin. Playing just 24 minutes, the ESPN freshman of the year tied her lowest rebound total of the year with three.
“The rest definitely helped,” she said. “It was nice that we got that lead.”
Senior Kathleen Sheer picked up some of those minutes and played a season-high 22 minutes. Freshman Ka’lia Johnson also played more than usual, scoring six points and grabbing four rebounds in 21 minutes.
Overmatched inside, Samford relied on its outside shooting from the start. The team did not make a layup until the second period, and half of the Bulldogs’ 28 first-half shot came from beyond the arc. Their 3-point shooting would not keep them in the game, though, making only four of their 14 attempts.
The team finished shooting just 28 percent from the field.
“In the first four or five minutes we had some decent looks, but when we missed those we started to press a little bit,” Samford head coach Mike Morris said. “Duke had a lot to do with that. They can cover ground with their length and they can cover ground with their size, so even layups are different.”
The only scare of the game for the Blue Devils came late in the first half, when sophomore Chelsea Gray was kicked in the chest while attempting to take a charge. The ACC leader in assists went down hard, grimacing in pain on the floor before being helped to the bench by a Duke trainer.
The injury proved temporary, though, as Gray reentered the game just a few possessions later, even scoring twice between the injury and the half’s final buzzer. The guard tallied 16 points, six assists, six rebounds and four steals in her well-balanced effort.
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