BLACKSBURG, Va.—Duke head coach Joanne P. McCallie walked toward her postgame ESPN interview with a smile she could not control. She had to bow her head down and put her left hand over her mouth.
After three consecutive losses, and nearing the end of a regular season that has gone anything but as planned, the Blue Devils won a crucial road ACC contest in the final minutes.
And they have their newfound playmakers to thank.
Without the services of leading scorer sophomore forward Azurá Stevens for the fifth straight game, frontcourt partner Oderah Chidom stepped up with a team-high 16 points and 11 rebounds. The Oakland, Calif., set the tone with her play down low, getting the ball there frequently and either scoring or finding open teammates who cut to the hoop.
“Oderah was just drawing lots of attention, able to score, able to pass [and she] got great assists,” McCallie said.
In total, Duke outrebounded Virginia Tech 26-12 on the defensive end, preventing the Hokies from getting second chances. Virginia Tech relied on the long ball throughout the game, attempting 28 shots from beyond the arc and converting only nine times. When they could not get rebounds, the Hokies struggled to get consistent quality looks, keeping them from building momentum.
The shot selection by both teams was key to Duke’s surge at the end of the third-quarter. The Hokies had begun the quarter going 2-of-3 from beyond the arc, and with 3:46 left, Samantha Hill scored to give the hosts a seven-point lead.
But the Blue Devils responded with a triple from freshman point guard Angela Salvadores. Then Rebecca Greenwell caught fire, drilling a jumper and hitting a foul shot. The Owensboro, Ky., native missed the next free throw, but redirected the offensive rebound into a layup, then hit another layup with 14 seconds remaining in the quarter.
“She took the game to the inside when she couldn’t get the outside,” McCallie said. “And that shows a lot of maturity…. [Rebecca] showed why she’s an All-American candidate.”
It was 10 straight points for Duke in the quarter's final 3:46, handing the Blue Devils a 49-46 lead heading into the last 10 minutes of the game. On the other end, Virginia Tech did not take a single good look down the stretch, except for two missed free throws which both went for misses. The Hokies finished 0-for-4 from the field during that 3:46 drought.
The visitors only gave the lead back once in the fourth quarter, but quickly took it back. Duke played well down the stretch and did not make a single 3-pointer in the stanza, though the team finished 6-of-13 from downtown overall.
Rebounding played a pivotal role with 6:16 remaining. After grabbing an offensive board, Amber Henson missed a 3-pointer, but Greenwell and Chidom essentially played ping pong off the offensive glass. Greenwell grabbed the rebound on the left side of the rim and missed a layup, Chidom grabbed a rebound on the other side of the rim and missed her own layup and Greenwell back on the left side got the rebound again and finished.
Still, the Hokies clawed their way back with five points off turnovers and nine points from Sydney Cook in the quarter. The Seton Hall transfer—who finished 8-of-12 from the field off the bench—hit a jumper with 1:54 left to give the Hokies a 62-61 edge.
But on the next possession, Duke went away from its inside game, which outscored the Hokies 28-18 in the paint. And the Blue Devils did not turn to veteran experience, even though Chidom, Greenwell and Henson had already combined for more than half the team’s points.
Duke put the ball in the hands of freshman guard Kyra Lambert, who up to that point was scoreless on 0-of-3 shooting. The Cibolo, Texas, native took the ball up the court, found herself unguarded on the right side of the perimeter, took a few steps in, and released a jumper that splashed through the net.
The Blue Devil defense then forced the Hokies into three bad looks in the last minute, and Chidom and Greenwell hit 3-of-4 punctual free throws to seal the four-point win.
“Every timeout…every dead ball we got, we just kept saying, ‘Just win, whatever we do. Win. Win ugly. We’re leaving Blacksburg with a win,’” Chidom said.
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