Wednesday's loss a learning experience at the point for young Blue Devils

Last season, if you asked the Blue Devils who their starting point guard was, you would not get a clear answer—there was not a true floor general on the roster.

This year, there are three guards capable of playing point in the Duke rotation—all of them true freshmen. Although the plethora of choices promises to make the Blue Devils more versatile in the backcourt, it also begs the question: Who will be the one taking the ball down the floor when the game is on the line?

Wednesday, that player was Kyra Lambert. The 5-foot-9 guard logged 40 minutes in No. 14 Duke’s 72-66 overtime loss to No. 12 Texas A&M, posting a 4-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio in her stint as the Blue Devils’ floor general. The Cibolo, Texas, native’s solid passing performance, however, sharply contrasted with an ice-cold 2-for-12 performance from the floor, which highlighted some of Duke’s limitations at the point guard position early in the season—namely youth and inexperience.

“[Lambert] is growing every game.... I think she’s frustrated a little bit because she wants to do more and she knows she can do more,” Duke head coach Joanne P. McCallie said. “She’s a freshman point guard and that’s a lot of pressure.... You need all the individuals to play at their highest level [to] connect, and we’re still working on that. We’re not always connecting right, the way we should, so there’s some lessons for us there.”

Lambert’s ball-handling and passing played a key role in keeping Duke within striking distance down the stretch. After the Aggies put some space between themselves and the Blue Devils with a 10-2 run at the beginning of the third quarter, Duke needed a team effort to regain the lead.

Showing poise under pressure, Lambert scored four of her eight points in the second half and gave the Blue Devils an early lead in overtime with a free throw. She committed just one turnover all night, holding her own against a veteran backcourt for a top-15 team and gave her teammates the opportunity to regain the lead.

That chance finally arrived with 2:23 left in the game. The Blue Devils led Texas A&M 63-61 and victory was in sight for McCallie’s squad. But an inability to pad that lead in the rest of regulation enabled the Aggies to force overtime, where they eventually overran a Duke team suffering the consequences of a short rotation.

“This is a game we should have won—we could have won—so you look at it, and you’ve got to let it sink in a little bit so that it can right some wrongs and get us to a higher level,” McCallie said.

Lambert was not the only Duke player to have a poor shooting night. In fact, every Blue Devil not named Rebecca Greenwell shot a combined 17-for-53. On a night when the perimeter shots were not falling, it was critical that Duke limit the number of mistakes it made—but the squad struggled in that regard also.

The Blue Devils committed 20 turnovers against Texas A&M compared to the Aggies’ 13 playing in a road environment. As Duke’s primary ball handler, Lambert did a lot to prevent that number from ballooning even higher.

As Lambert continues to develop, she can turn to Greenwell for advice and support. Although not a true point guard, the Owensboro, Ky., native was one of the Blue Devils’ primary ball-handlers last season and has been able to return to her natural shooting guard position with the addition of true point guards like Lambert.

“[Being a mentor means] just talking to them, making sure they have the right mindset, especially coming into games like this,” Greenwell said. “It’s tough. We’re going to face adversity…[it comes down to] just trying to get everyone on the same page.”

Although McCallie said that each and every Duke guard will play point at some point this season, that person has mostly been Lambert so far—especially as freshman Angela Salvadores is still learning the system and resting for much of the preseason following a busy summer of international competition.

But the Blue Devils’ turnover problem persisted up and down the roster in Wednesday’s loss, suggesting that the issue with giveaways is a group one rather than resting on the shoulders of a single player in one position.

Duke will need to address taking care of the ball for the full 40 minutes moving forward, as Lambert continues her rise at one of the most capable point guards on the Duke roster.

“We really played a period of intensity that I think will teach the team,” McCallie said. This is what you have to play like from the beginning when the score is 0-0. That’s part of our maturing, to bring that to the table, and hopefully we can do that on Sunday [against Army].”