In its second consecutive road game against a top-15 opponent, No. 9 Duke hoped to once again prove that they belong among the top teams in the country.
For the second game in a row, the Blue Devils were done in by offensive struggles down the stretch in a tight contest.
“You have to really hunker down in the last five minute of the game, ” Duke head coach Joanne P. McCallie said. “The intelligence and immediacy and intelligence quotient is going up at the end of the game.”
Down 22-9 with 9:37 left in the first half against No. 12 Nebraska, it appeared as though Duke (5-2) was in danger of being blown off the floor. Without senior Elizabeth Williams—who missed her second straight game with an ankle injury—and with leading scorer Rebecca Greenwell not finding many open looks, the Blue Devils faced an uphill climb with a young roster in a hostile road environment.
But Duke would respond on the backs of a strong defensive effort, holding Nebraska (7-0) without a field goal for the final 5:21 of the first half and cutting the Cornhusker lead to 28-27 going into halftime.
“I think we fought back well,” said freshman Azura Stevens, who made her first career start and led Duke with 16 points in the loss. “We could’ve been better defensively, but for what we had and without Elizabeth, I thought we fought back."
A back-and-forth struggle persisted throughout the second half and with 3:19 remaining in the game, the Blue Devils could not have asked to be in a better position—down just two points despite a poor shooting night.
But in those critical minutes, Duke went into a shell on offense—the Blue Devils scored just four points the rest of the way—and was done in by one of its biggest strengths: rebounding.
“We just did not get the stops we needed at the time we needed them and [the Cornhuskers] did a great job of finding their best players down the stretch,” McCallie said.
On a night when Duke built up a 47-34 rebounding advantage—including 18 offensive rebounds—it was a Nebraska offensive rebound and put-back by senior forward Emily Cady with 52 seconds remaining that sealed the deal.
On the offensive end, the Blue Devils misfired on eight of their 10 crunch-time possessions—indicative of most of the night for Duke, who shot less than 32 percent as a team.
With two games against top-notch competition under their belt, the Blue Devils have certainly shown that they are capable of hanging tight with any team in the country. Yet the biggest question remains as to how Duke can manufacture enough quality possessions down the stretch to win hard-fought slugfests such as Wednesday’s, particularly without Williams.
“I have no idea who picked them sixth in the Big Ten. I would like to know how that happened,” McCallie said. “If I were them, they should be beside themselves because they are a really good team…. This is by far the best Nebraska team I’ve ever seen.”
A good deal of the struggle in the consecutive losses has stemmed from the absence of All-American center Elizabeth Williams. The senior has been rock solid for Duke throughout her four years on campus—both as a leader and as a superstar performer. Without Williams in the last two contests, the Blue Devils have lacked the dominant post threat necessary to free up Greenwell and others for open perimeter looks.
Instead, Duke has tried to run its offense through other options such as Stevens, who has responded well and averaged 15.5 points in her last two outings. The Raleigh, NC native will continue to improve with more experience, but could get even more opportunities once Williams is back healthy and attracting attention from defenses.
“We could’ve really used a double-double performer with a million blocks,” said McCallie. “It’s no excuse at all, but the reality is that that’s an All-American center missing…. It’s been unfortunate, our schedule and her injury.”
With an encounter with top-ranked South Carolina looming Sunday, Duke has yet another chance to improve its late-game execution and come out with a much-needed victory.
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