As 2024 comes to a close, The Chronicle’s sports department is reviewing the biggest moments from this year in Duke athletics.
At No. 8, Duke women’s basketball entered the NCAA Tournament as the No. 7-seed. Head coach Kara Lawson continued to improve her team’s postseason finish in each of her first three years, leading the team to a Sweet 16 appearance after an impressive second round win at Ohio State:
After an impressive regular season that saw Duke women’s basketball move from projected to finish seventh in the ACC to one of the stronger programs in the conference and country, things weren’t looking so good in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
On March 24, the seventh-seeded Blue Devils were down 20-10 against No. 2-seed Ohio State after the first quarter, and they did not look like a team that deserved to move on to the Sweet 16. Duke was struggling to make its shots or find any semblance of a functional offense whatsoever.
The Blue Devils hadn’t even made a field goal since the 8:05 mark in the first quarter, while the Buckeye defense was humming. It probably only stung further that the Ohio State squad was led by none other than Celeste Taylor, a former star with Duke who left Durham for Columbus suddenly after initially announcing her intent to return to the program for a fifth year.
But whatever head coach Kara Lawson said to her squad in the huddle before the second quarter worked. The visitors chipped away at the lead, closing it to just four points by the halftime buzzer. Duke outscored the Buckeyes 19-14 in the third period to take the lead by just a single point then closed out strong in the fourth quarter to walk off the floor with a massive upset victory and a ticket punched to the Sweet 16 in Portland, Ore.
While it was standout junior guard Reigan Richardson who led the way for Duke with a massive 28-point performance on 11-for-18 shooting from the field, the biggest takeaways from this game — and the season — came from some of the younger players on the floor. Sophomore guard Taina Mair, a fresh-faced transfer from Boston College, put up 11 points and tacked on four assists. Her classmate, guard Ashlon Jackson, also came into her own with 13 points on 4-for-6 shooting. Jackson, who failed to see much action in her first year with the team, made a leap in her second year and has since made a name for herself as a bonafide star in her junior season.
Additionally, several freshmen played significant and impactful minutes. Forward Delaney Thomas played 27 off the bench, while guard Oluchi Okananwa and forward Jadyn Donovan each played 13. Donovan and Okananwa also had significant roles in a comeback victory against a punchy Richmond squad that required a second-half rally to beat in the first round.
“You look at Delaney today, you look at Oluchi and Jadyn against Richmond, they're ready to go now,” Lawson said after the game against the Buckeyes. “That's a testament to our veteran players, but it's also a testament to those freshmen that they're confident that they can make plays. We've seen Delaney do this all year.”
In many ways, that Ohio State game proved to the world what it seemed Lawson knew all year: Not only could Duke hang around in games against top teams, but it could win them. After tight losses to then-No. 2 Stanford and No. 1 South Carolina early in the season, the Blue Devils finally had another chance to beat an elite squad. This time, they took it.
Ultimately, the season would end in the next round with a loss to a dominant UConn team led by superstar Paige Bueckers, but it was certainly not an unsuccessful one. After being unranked all year, the Blue Devils finished the year ranked No. 17. They started the 2024-25 season at No. 11 and have had a successful campaign so far this year.
Duke will now head into a challenging ACC schedule, starting 2025 with a Jan. 2 road game against Boston College.
Read more
OH-NO: No. 7-seed Duke women's basketball shocks Ohio State in Columbus, books spot in Sweet 16
CONNED: Duke women's basketball never leads, bows out of NCAA tournament with loss to UConn
The Chronicle's 2024-25 women's basketball season preview
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Martin Heintzelman is a Trinity junior and Blue Zone editor of The Chronicle's 120th volume.