HARTFORD, Conn.—For 20 minutes, it looked like Duke had what it took to upset the second-ranked team in the nations. Despite 12 turnovers and 34.5 percent shooting, the Blue Devils forced Connecticut into 11 first-half giveaways of its own, led with six minutes to go in the period and trailed by just seven at halftime.
The experienced Huskies, however, got a step on Duke after the break and never looked back, exploding for 16 points in the first five minutes of the second half, ultimately winning 83-52 Monday night at the XL Center. Connecticut has now won eight straight meetings between the programs.
"[This] was a very disappointing game—terrific game by Connecticut," head coach Joanne P. McCallie said. "It was a pathetic display from us, especially in terms of hustle and intangibles. It's not always about shot-making, although we would like to make more shots."
Coming off a week-long break after a double-digit blowout against then-No. 8 Kentucky, Duke (8-4) opened the game missing its first four shots, but the Blue Devils still managed to jump out to a 6-2 lead in the first three minutes—what would end up being their largest lead of the night.
After breaking for the media timeout, Connecticut (10-1) returned to the floor with an elevated level of intensity as Duke folded under the pressure of the full-court press. The Huskies took advantage, pulling out to an 11-point lead midway through the period.
Despite Connecticut's push, Duke freshman forward Azura Stevens, who ranks third on the team in scoring with 12.2 points per game, kept her squad in the contest, notching seven points to eventually cut the lead to three.
The next possession, guard Ka'lia Johnson knocked down a trey to even the score, and after a few possessions, center Elizabeth Williams scored to give the Blue Devils a 24-22 lead with 6:48 to go.
Taking advantage of Duke's turnovers, Connecticut gained a slight advantage in the final minutes of the first half and led 33-26.
When they came back to the floor, the defending champion Huskies left the Blue Devils in their dust.
Shooting a blistering 51.7 percent clip from the floor, the Huskies built a 20-point lead by the 10:36 mark and did not let the margin fall far below that the rest of the contest despite a combined 31 points from Williams and Stevens.
"We had absolutely no defensive leadership," McCallie said. [In the second half] we had nobody make a defensive play or stop or keep up the communication."
Connecticut used a balanced scoring attack, as all starters finished in double-figures for the second time this season. Guard Moriah Jefferson led the onslaught with three second-half 3-pointers that broke the game open, finishing with a game-high 18 points.
"[Jefferson] hit some key threes. How can you be so lost in man-to-man?" McCallie said. "The reality is that her first made three was so wide-open my grandma would've made it. There was a lack of intensity by the defensive off-guard. I don't take anything away [from her], she played an excellent second half and she came out strong."
In a similar fashion to their matchup with the Huskies two years ago in Storrs, Conn., the Blue Devils saw a single-digit halftime deficit turn into a 30-plus point blowout as they could not keep up with the balanced Connecticut offensive attack.
All five starters scored in double-figures for the Huskies. In addition to Jefferson's scoring output, forward Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis—who knocked down four 3-pointers—and reigning Naismith Player of the year Breanna Stewart added 14 points apiece.
“[Mosqueda-Lewis] and Moriah really gave our team a lot of confidence," Connecticut head coach Geno Auriemma said. "They made a lot of big plays, and that's the one thing I want this team to consistently develop—that real mentality of putting teams away by making the right play at the right time."
The Huskies outscored Duke 50-26 in the second half, and McCallie expressed particular disappointment in her squad’s hustle. The Huskies racked up 17 points off the break and 24 off turnovers. Moreover, Connecticut became the first team to out-rebound the Blue Devils this season—by a margin of six—and outscored Duke in the paint 36-20. In the post, Williams and Stevens were forced to fight through 6-foot-3 defensive specialist Kiah Stokes, who racked up four of Connecticut's seven blocks.
"They were really active, they kept their hands up," Williams said of the Huskies' interior defenders. "They wanted to be really disruptive in the lane and they did a really good job."
The 31-point rout marked the worst margin of defeat for the Blue Devils since a 35-point loss to the Huskies in the 2011 NCAA tournament.
Monday's game was the last scheduled matchup between the teams, and the programs are unlikely to renew the series next year. Connecticut has been Duke's longest-running marquee nonconference opponent in McCallie's eight seasons in Durham, as teams such as Tennessee and Stanford have been rotated out in favor of Kentucky and South Carolina.
The Blue Devils have played five top-15 teams this month, and McCallie suggested that the slate has taken a burden on a young, developing team.
“I think we over-rotated this year—our schedule’s too hard," McCallie said. "This team has not responded the way that I would like them to.... You will make [the experience into] learning lessons, but we're also going to be honest about [the fact that] this has not been good."
For the first time since the 1998-99 season, Duke has suffered four losses before the New Year.
But those Blue Devils turned that season around, reaching Duke’s first Final Four in program history. Williams, Stevens and the young Blue Devil backcourt will need to rebound quickly to turn Duke's season around with the ACC gauntlet quickly approaching.
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