CHAPEL HILL—Turnovers and miscommunications have plagued an inexperienced Duke team for much of the year, but the Blue Devils finally got on the same page in the last game of the regular season.
Duke dished out a season-high 25 assists and committed just 12 turnovers in a 93-57 rout of rival North Carolina, putting together its most complete performance of the season. Freshman point guard Kyra Lambert matched her career-high of seven helpers with just one giveaway, and junior Oderah Chidom and graduate student Amber Henson each distributed five assists from the post.
“The way we played today, showing that we can get 25 assists—I think that’s our key. When we’re moving and passing and cutting and getting to the open players, that’s when we play our best,” redshirt sophomore Rebecca Greenwell said. “Everyone was knocking down the shots and we were getting good passes, so we just have to keep going with what’s working.”
Entering the contest, Duke had 399 assists and 550 turnovers this season, and the Blue Devils had not finished with more helpers than giveaways in a game since Jan. 7 against Wake Forest. Everything came together Sunday afternoon, with Duke’s 2.1 assist-to-turnover ratio easily its best mark of the year.
The Blue Devils ended the first half on a 35-10 run and assisted on their last 13 made field goals of the half, beginning with a layup by freshman Angela Salvadores off a dish from sophomore Erin Mathias with 1:04 remaining in the first quarter.
“I’m really excited about that first half of basketball, because it was so clean and it was so team-driven in terms of finding each other,” Duke head coach Joanne P. McCallie said. “Our 17 assists at halftime—that’s just terrific basketball, and that’s something that we can really learn for ball movement and finding each other.”
Lambert was the primary facilitator at point guard, firing perfect strikes in transition down the floor to Chidom and Mathias and helping the Blue Devils to a 14-2 advantage in fast break points.
Chidom was the biggest beneficiary of the improved passing, finishing with a career-high 20 points. The 6-foot-4 forward ran the floor well and got in position for layups when Lambert or Salvadores penetrated or executed high-low sets with Henson in Duke’s half-court offense.
Lambert put an exclamation point on the clean performance with 8:16 remaining in the contest, receiving a pass from Salvadores and immediately whipping the ball behind her back to Greenwell, who could not finish the layup through contact but set a new career-high on her ensuing trip to the line.
“[I was] just being aggressive and trying to find my teammates and get my teammates going,” Lambert said. “They knocked down shots.”
With Lambert creating opportunities for her teammates, the other Blue Devils returned the favor for her. Several players touched the ball on most possessions, passing too quickly for North Carolina’s defense to rotate, and Duke got several open 3-pointers on kick-outs from drives into the lane or post-up opportunities.
Greenwell drew the defense in with a drive late in the first quarter and passed to Lambert for her first made triple since Feb. 1, and the Cibolo, Texas, native knocked down two more 3-pointers in the second quarter to break the game open after the Tar Heels helped on Mathias and Chidom under the basket.
“When we move the ball, we go through the post—it doesn’t mean the post has to score every time—if we go through the post and move the ball, we become very dangerous,” McCallie said. “Everyone just took advantage of what was there without trying to force something to be there, and that’s the big difference—reading the defense and working together.”
All seven of the Blue Devils’ 3-pointers came off assists, and Lambert’s 14 points marked the second-highest scoring output of her career.
Duke’s backcourt depth was thought to be a strength heading into the season, but Lambert and Salvadores have often been inconsistent during their rookie campaigns. But the two point guards are starting to turn the corner as the season winds down, and if the Blue Devils can eliminate the turnover bug that caused so many losses this year, they could be a serious contender at this week’s ACC tournament in Greensboro, N.C., especially if star sophomore Azurá Stevens is at last able to return to the floor.
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