The Blue Devils look to snap a four-game losing streak on the road with a trip to Boston College.
No. 15 Duke challenges the Eagles Thursday at 7 p.m. in Chestnut Hill, Mass. The Blue Devils claimed back-to-back victories in their two most recent games at home, and they will hope to carry the momentum away from Durham into their next two contests.
“We’re excited to start a new weekend,” head coach Joanne P. McCallie said. “We know we’ve played tough competition in the past—at Connecticut, [Texas] A&M, and everywhere else—but we still want to be the best we can be right now, which means executing at any place.”
Duke (13-5, 4-1 in the ACC) fell to Florida State and Nebraska in addition to the Huskies and Aggies, and the two most recent road losses came in double digits.
Although poor shooting and foul trouble have contributed in some of these games, the largest contributing factor was the team’s excessive turnover count. After 25 turnovers in the loss to the Seminoles, the Blue Devils managed just 26 across their next two games, a significant improvement on the season.
“[We have to] continue to slow down a little bit, not go too fast and just continue to work on our IQ—to realize it’s a conscious effort to be a smart team,” McCallie said.
Boston College (8-10, 0-5) enters the contest hoping to snap a losing streak of its own, having dropped its last five games, four of them by 10 or more points. Duke has not lost to the Eagles since 2010, and it has only dropped one other game to Boston College across 13 total meetings.
The Eagles bring a sharp-shooting squad to the game Thursday, ranked 17th nationally for its 8.1 3-pointers-per-game average and second in the ACC behind Notre Dame in three-point shooting percentage at 38.9.
Four Eagle shooters currently have three-point percentages of 37.0 or higher, led by starting sophomore guard Kelly Hughes’ 39.2 percentage on 47 made treys this season. Together with Hughes and her 14.6 points per game, junior guard Nicole Boudreau will pose a threat to the Blue Devil defense, averaging 11.8 points of her own on the season.
“[Our defensive key will be] great team ball pressure [and] extending and getting to the shooters quickly,” McCallie said. “Being much more alert in transition, because they’ll pop [threes] in transition as well as out of their offenses, and just good communication overall.”
Duke has defended against more three-point attempts than any other team in conference, but opponents have made just 119-of-444, the best defending ratio of any ACC team. Boston College will likely be allowed its fair share of shot attempts and must hope for accuracy, as the Blue Devils tie for first nationally with an average rebounding margin of 14.6.
Duke’s dominance in the paint isn’t only due to strong rebounds. Forwards Azura Stevens and Elizabeth Williams combined for 44 points in the team’s most recent win—a 68-53 romp against Miami—only two of which came from the free throw line.
Stevens entered the starting lineup in December, starting her first game with Williams Dec. 7 against South Carolina, where the two combined for 10 points. The improvement has been drastic as the season continues, and the Blue Devils will likely turn to the freshman-senior combination in search of a victory Thursday.
“They’ve got much more of a familiarity with each other,” McCallie said. “They’ve just had more time on the floor together, they’ve been able to play off each other, screen for each other and set each other up and that’s been really fun for them.”
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.