CHAPEL HILL— A loss is never the preferred outcome, especially one in a rivalry game to close out the regular season.
But for head coach Kara Lawson’s team, Sunday’s 63-59 loss at North Carolina is not worth panicking over. In fact, Duke once again showed its ability to hang tough and battle back, leaving it in good headspace for the postseason.
“It's always a battle. I'm disappointed. Obviously, no one likes to lose,” Lawson said. “But I'm not discouraged. I think my team's had a great year.”
But before the battle down the stretch against the Tar Heels, the Blue Devils had to fight their way back into the game. The game started with Duke playing stout defensively, with two blocks and three steals through the first quarter. But it was the offensive production that was missing. The Blue Devils ended the first 3-for-15 on field goals, and everything from simple layups to 3-pointers would not fall.
The biggest example of this was junior guard Reigan Richardson. Duke’s leading scorer has often been Lawson’s go-to for buckets, but Sunday, she was nowhere to be found and finished with a mere two points.
“It's hard to, as a guard, shoot well all the time,” Lawson said. “It was just kind of one of those games for her. I thought she was a little rushed in the first half with some of her shots, since she's normally pretty accurate.”
Knowing this, North Carolina dropped into a zone, forcing the Blue Devils to make a play. And just as it seemed like Duke, down by 15, would be in for a long afternoon, things started clicking.
Who else would it be but the veteran leader of Lawson’s young team, Kennedy Brown. The senior sank a jump shot for her team’s second basket in seven minutes, before Ashlon Jackson buried a three. Emma Koabel then sank back-to-back triples, and the comeback was on. The Blue Devils erased the deficit and went into the locker room with the 31-30 lead.
“[In the second] I thought we defensively just got more stops,” Lawson said. “That allowed us to run. Our pace picked up a little bit in the second, and that gave us some confidence.”
This is a sign of growth for this young team, and a valuable experience as it heads to the postseason. With the team knowing it is not out of any game, it can only become more confident and dangerous.
“They don't play well all the time, but they're not afraid of moments and they're not afraid of competing,” Lawson said. “What I bring into the postseason is a group that's eager to compete and wants to play well.”
In the second half, Duke competed in every sense of the word. As both teams started the third quarter playing a little antsy — each side let slip three turnovers in the first three minutes — they began to heat up and a shootout was on.
The lead flipped several times, and the Blue Devils came from down five to tie it. Jackson made two big threes for Duke, and it entered the final period tied with their rivals.
Even when the Tar Heels went on a 9-0 run, the young Blue Devils fought back. Once again, Duke showed it is capable of adjusting mid-game, and will never simply roll over. North Carolina iced things on free throws, but until the final buzzer sounded, the Blue Devils were in the game.
“There is good in this for us. There's also some learning, the bad is learning and for my group to be in a possession game, you just don't have a lot of those,” Lawson said. “So it's really good for [the young players] to be in these situations.”
Experience will grow and learning will continue, but the biggest short-term fix for Duke will be taking advantage of its opportunities. The Blue Devils finished 8-of-21 on layups, including multiple on fast breaks and other wide-open chances. Defensively, things faltered later, as the Tar Heels were able to work well schematically and feed Alyssa Ustby, who finished with 17 points.
“We had too many missed assignments defensively today,” Lawson said. “I've got to do a better job as a coach of making sure our assignments are correct.”
While these areas for growth are worth highlighting, what Duke showed Sunday was its ability to fight, overcome adversity and play mature, level-headed basketball, despite its youth. Now, the stakes get even higher, and the Blue Devils will need to move past a lack of experience in order to find tournament successes.
“Hopefully we'll take these lessons and bring them over to the postseason,” Lawson said. “Now it's one and done, so you've got to learn in-game and learn on the fly to be a successful postseason team.”
Duke’s first chance to do that will be in the ACC tournament, where it was announced following Sunday’s game that the Blue Devils are the No. 7-seed. This slates them to face either Georgia Tech or Pittsburgh Thursday at 5 p.m.
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