Rebecca Greenwell
The statline
Sunday vs. North Carolina: 27 points on 10-of-17 shooting, 10 rebounds, two assists, two steals and four made 3-pointers.
The good: In a week with just one game for the Blue Devils, the redshirt sophomore posted a new career high in points against the rival Tar Heels. Greenwell led Duke to a dominant 93-57 victory in Chapel Hill and was hot the entire afternoon. She knocked down four of her seven 3-point attempts on the way to the Blue Devils' second-highest individual scoring output of the season.
Even with midseason Wooden Award candidate Azurá Stevens sidelined for her seventh consecutive game with a torn plantar fascia in her left foot, the Owensboro, Ky., native found plenty of space in a shoddy, short-handed North Carolina defense. Her 17 field goal attempts were a team high Sunday and her early offensive success created even more openings for teammates Oderah Chidom and Kyra Lambert to also register double-digit points.
The bad: Greenwell really could do no wrong in Sunday's season finale. She turned the ball over just once and committed only one foul. Still, the 6-foot-1 guard missed a couple of easy layups, but fortunately, those points meant nothing in a blowout win. With the ACC tournament beginning Thursday afternoon in Greensboro, N.C, the road will certainly get tougher for Greenwell and company. If Duke is going to earn its way into the NCAA tournament, they will need all the points they can get going forward from the dynamic sophomore.
The bottom line: The Blue Devils will not get to where they want to be nor where most fans expected to be at the beginning of the season without Stevens. The Raleigh, N.C., native is the team's star and Duke needs the consistent offensive output that its leading scorer provides on a consistent basis. But Greenwell's stellar performance to close the 2015-16 regular season reminded everyone of the ability that she has on offense. If the Blue Devils are to make any type of run in March, they will need Greenwell to stay hot and be part of the dynamic duo that she and Stevens can be when on the floor together.
Honorable mention: Not one, but two Duke players posted a career-high in points Sunday afternoon as junior Oderah Chidom also set a new personal best. Her 20 points and nine rebounds helped control the paint against North Carolina. The Blue Devils thrashed the Tar Heels, winning the points in the paint battle, 54-10, and the rebound battle, 51-33. The 6-foot-4 forward ended the regular season on a high note in what has been a breakout 2015-16 campaign. With Duke thin up front due to a number of injuries, Chidom will be critical as postseason play begins.
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Twitter: @mpgladstone13
A junior from just outside Philadelphia, Mitchell is probably reminding you how the Eagles won the Super Bowl this year and that the Phillies are definitely on the rebound. Outside of The Chronicle, he majors in Economics, minors in Statistics and is working toward the PJMS certificate, in addition to playing trombone in the Duke University Marching Band. And if you're getting him a sandwich with beef and cheese outside the state of Pennsylvania, you best not call it a "Philly cheesesteak."