Christmas came early; just not for Duke.
At the Yuengling Center in Tampa, Fla., in its last non-conference match-up of the season, No. 9 Duke fell 65-56 to South Florida, earning its third loss of the season and handing South Florida its first ranked win in two years.
“This is what we need … I love this adversity for us because this is testing us,” head coach Kara Lawson said. “I thought [Duke’s] response in the third quarter was good. We just could never get into a rhythm, and that hurt us.”
Slowly yet surely, the Blue Devils (10-3, 1-0 in the ACC) ate away at what was once a 23-point deficit. Soon after Duke cut the lead to 10 points, sophomore forward Joran Wood dove out of bounds alongside South Florida redshirt senior Romi Levy. After a foul call on Wood, Levy jolted her arm in frustration, hitting Wood in the face. The action was reviewed to become a flagrant foul, giving Duke two shots and the ball. The Blue Devils held the Bulls scoreless for the time remaining and were only down by six points by the end of the third quarter.
A high-arcing 3-pointer by Taina Mair opened the scoring in the final frame, and Duke was within three.
The Bulls (7-6) and Blue Devils traded blows in the opening minutes of the fourth before a momentum-shifting liver punch landed cleanly on Duke: in an attempt to gain a rebound, sophomore Delaney Thomas elbowed South Florida's Carla Brito in the face, bobbled the ball, and then grabbed graduate guard Sammie Puisis in an attempt to stop her from scoring. Two flagrant fouls were called on Thomas, effectively ejecting the Duke forward from the game and handing South Florida four free throws and possession. Puisis, a 92.9% free-throw shooter, stepped up to the line and knocked down all four. Just like that, the Bulls led by 10 again.
With half a quarter remaining, the Blue Devils tried what they could to fight back into the match, but their first-half woes and the ejection were all too much.
Freshman forward Toby Fournier put in a layup with under two minutes in the first half to become the first Blue Devil to record more than two points. An ineffective 26.1% first-half shooting clip from Lawson’s squad, which included a 0-for-5 3-point percentage, wasn’t doing Duke any favors. To make matters worse, South Florida converted three of its four 3-point attempts in the first half in addition to its 55.6% clip from the field.
“Certainly, a lion's share of the credit goes to South Florida. I thought they competed at a level worthy of getting the win,” Lawson said.
The Blue Devils’ 12 first-half turnovers were double their number of field goals made in the first two quarters, and Lawson’s team entered the halftime break standing at the base of a crushing 33-15 deficit.
One could have guessed that in its lowest-scoring first half of the season, Duke opened play in a shooting slump. The Blue Devils entered the matchup of the regular season having scored 70 or more points in every contest this year but would soon find themselves with only a single made field goal, and nearly half of the first quarter gone by.
Lawson’s squad’s unusually high turnover count in tandem with its ice-cold shooting start meant that it wasn’t long before Duke found itself down 10 to its Sunshine State hosts. A Vanessa de Jesus turnover led to a fast-break layup for the Bulls, and soon after, Wood’s inbound pass resulted in another free South Florida possession.
Lawson called a turnover in an attempt to stop the bleeding, but once play continued, her side would continue to struggle. The Blue Devils exited the first quarter down 20-6; their measly six points were the lowest number of points they scored in a quarter this season.
Luckily for Duke, it held the Bulls from scoring in their first possession of the second half and went down the court to put two quick points on the board. South Florida sent their next inbound pass out of bounds to hand the visitors another two points. Head coach Jose Fernandez was forced to call a timeout as the Blue Devils were quickly back within 14. The Bulls settled down offensively, but Duke’s success continued until momentum shifted in the fourth.
Lawson’s squad gets rest for the holiday season and will be back in action in the new year against Boston College.
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