FRESNO, Calif. — Despite a sluggish start in its NCAA tournament regional semifinal, No. 2 seeded Duke was dominant in its 74-47 victory against No. 3 seeded St. John’s at Save Mart Center Saturday night.
“I’m proud of our team, and I thought it was a great team effort,” head coach Joanne P. McCallie said. “We had a little bit of a slow start, but then we had a nice refocus. Everybody was contributing and playing aggressive defense.”
With the win, the Blue Devils advance to face Stanford Monday night at Save Mart Center with a trip to the Final Four on the line.
Duke struggled at the start, allowing the Red Storm easy shots but failing to convert on its own side of the court. The Blue Devils would recover, though, using a combination of zone defense and better shot selection to take their first lead with 9:26 remaining in the first half.
“I felt that we needed to mix it up a little bit, and I didn’t know how long we would go with the change,” McCallie said. “I thought our team did a pretty good job… I think it’s important to be a multiple-defense team.”
With the change—and the Red Storm’s Da’shena Stevens in foul trouble—Duke got back in the game, and the lead went back-and-forth before the Blue Devils pulled away with 6:24 left in the half with a 13-0 run that included a 3-pointer in the final second of the opening period.
“Duke played exceptionally well tonight and forced us into a lot of turnovers [that] took us out of our game,” St. John’s head coach Kim Barnes Arico said. “Da’Shena is our strength in the zone, and when we don’t have her in there, it’s hard to score.”
At the end of the first 20 minutes, the Blue Devils had outpaced the Red Storm, shooting at a 50-percent clip in the first half for the sixth straight game. Duke continued its strong play in the second half behind senior guard Shay Selby.
“This is my last go-around, so I want to go out with a bang, and I let my energy trickle down onto the other players,” said Selby, who finished the game with a team-high 18 points and seven assists. “Even from our first tournament game, we were a completely different team than we’ve been all season. We’ve finally been putting things together, and fortunately, it’s at the right time.”
The Red Storm had difficulty getting defensive stops and stopping Selby, who not only contributed points to Duke’s total, but created shot opportunities for her teammates.
“When you have multiple people who can score, it’s difficult to defend,” head coach Kim Barnes Arico said. “We really stress [guarding] their point guard and their big, but other players have really been stepping up and doing an incredible job scoring for them…. I just think they can really score the basketball, and that makes it a tough match-up for anyone.”
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