Rebecca Greenwell and Boston College's Kelly Hughes traded 3-pointers all afternoon Sunday at Cameron Indoor Stadium with both sharp-shooters finishing with five or more long-balls and 23 points.
Unfortunately for the Eagles, though they kept pace with the Blue Devils from the perimeter, they had no answer for a dominant performance by the Duke frontcourt.
The No. 22 Blue Devils set the tone early, pounding the ball inside to Azurá Stevens throughout the first quarter en route to a 71-51 victory, ending a two-game losing streak in ACC play. Stevens scored the first seven Duke points and wound up with her 11th double-double of the year—17 points and 14 rebounds—but Sunday, she had plenty of help.
Graduate student Amber Henson and junior Oderah Chidom combined for 14 points and 11 rebounds as the Blue Devils outrebounded the Eagles 37-21, with a 15-3 edge on the offensive glass. Henson and Chidom were also seemingly everywhere on the defensive end, with the former notching five steals and the latter accounting for four of Duke's seven blocks.
“I thought the team did a good job [defensively],” Duke head coach Joanne P. McCallie said. “[We were] playing aggressively, really trying to take them out of their sets and their ability to set up [offense]. I thought the defensive pressure was very good.”
With a considerable size advantage from the opening tip, Duke exploited the Eagles’ interior defense from the tipoff. Chidom and Stevens led the offensive charge for the Blue Devils, pounding Boston College deep in the post to score several easy buckets close to the basket. Chidom’s solid footwork down low put her in great position to shake off defenders and attack the basket, and Stevens came out aggressively on the glass and punished the opponents with second-chance points.
The duo combined for 15 of Duke's 17 first-quarter points and snatched 10 offensive rebounds throughout the game to fuel the lopsided rebounding margin.
Then Greenwell got going.
After struggling Thursday against N.C. State to the tune of 1-of-7 from the field, Greenwell made an impact on both ends of the floor, scoring the team-high 23 points and adding five steals.
On the other side of the court, Duke’s size effectively disrupted the Eagles' offensive flow. Employing a half court press in the first quarter, the Blue Devils kept their hands up to contest the Boston College perimeter shots. Greenwell and Henson combined for 10 steals and turned them into several fast break points. The Eagles headed to the locker room shooting just 25.0 percent from the floor and trailing 30-18.
“I think we learned a lot just from playing them last year,” Greenwell said. “They got a ton of threes off from us. We just tried to communicate more and I think we did a great job getting the next pass and scrambling, disrupting their defense.”
In the third quarter, though, Boston College started heating up. A trey from Hughes cut the Duke lead to 35-34, and with Chidom and Stevens tightly guarded by multiple defenders, the Blue Devils’ post offense was bogged down.
Once again, Greenwell responded. After shooting just 2-of-9 in the first half, she attacked the basket more in the second half to put pressure on the Eagles’ interior defense. As she drew attention from the defenders, Stevens was freed up down low, and the Raleigh native scored several layups to put Duke back in the driver's seat. After a timely 3-pointer from freshman Faith Suggs, the Blue Devils found their footing again with a 43-36 lead, and kept their lead into the fourth quarter.
In the final period, Greenwell kept her foot on the gas, this time from the 3-point line. She opened the scoring with a triple to extend the lead to 50-41, and hit two more later on to help blow the game open. With the Eagles now keying on defending the perimeter, Stevens and freshman guard Crystal Primm drove the lane, and freshman guard Kyra Lambert ensured good ball movement with seven assists.
“I tried to be more patient,” Greenwell said. “I wasn’t getting a lot of shots that I wanted to in the first half and when I was, I wasn’t connecting so I just tried to slow down, come off of screens tighter and read the defense instead of flaring every time, curling, mixing things up.”
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