While most of America’s eyes may have been looking forward towards the bigger game on deck for Sunday evening, Duke women’s basketball had a dominant showing earlier in the afternoon.
The Blue Devils took on Miami in Cameron Indoor Stadium and soundly dispatched the Hurricanes 90-49 behind two more impressive performances from guard Ashlon Jackson and forward Toby Fournier.
“I told the team I was just proud of their effort today and how they just navigated the ups and downs of the game,” head coach Kara Lawson said. “Obviously the margin was wide, but within that, we're searching for great possessions, and we're searching for doing things the way that we need to do them on both ends.”
Both squads started strong on defense, and opportunities to score were limited. Graduate guard Haley Cavinder got things moving for the visitors, attacking the rim with a nice move to open up a layup. The game stayed back and forth as neither team could build much of a lead.
That changed when Blue Devil forward Jadyn Donovan took the ball down the floor on a fast break and dished off a beautiful no-look pass to Fournier, who deposited the ball in the net with ease.
From there, the Duke defense took over. The Hurricanes tried to attack the Blue Devil press by pushing the pace, albeit with minimal success. The visitors turned the ball over six times in the first quarter while Duke racked up blocks. Fournier in particular was at the helm, stuffing a post-up attempt with authority as the Blue Devils pushed their lead to double digits.
It was more of the same in the second period, as Fournier caught a pass from guard Emma Koabel on the perimeter and cashed in a three, pushing the margin to 15. Miami was forced to call its second timeout of the game to regroup as the contest threatened to get out of hand. The Canadian forward had another strong game, further contributing to her resume as one of the best players in the conference.
“It's unique how she's able to finish, how she's able to impact the game with her athleticism on both ends. And she's trending upward,” Lawson said.
And despite the break, the game did get out of hand. Jackson returned to her volume scoring ways, pulling a deep three to continue what was then a 3-for-3 night from behind the arc. While the offense had slowed down by the end of the quarter — Miami closed things out with an 8-2 run — it was 37-22 Duke at halftime. Notably, the Hurricanes were a dismal 0-for-8 from three.
Miami came out of the locker room with more confidence, looking to attack down low. Both sides struggled to start the quarter on offense, although Jackson again found her spot in the corner and drained her fourth three of the contest. The Duke defense showed out as Blue Devils swarmed the ball and caused chaos in the lanes, forcing a third shot clock violation on the Hurricanes. Jackson continued to rain down shots from deep, ticking up to an efficient 5-for-7 from behind the arc. With just under five minutes left in the third quarter, Duke had built up an authoritative 25-point lead.
“Each and every single day, my teammates compete against me and vice versa, and just the faith that they have in me, the belief that they have in me all the way through,” Jackson said after the game. “So just having nights like this or games like this where I can come up big for them, for sure, it's been helping me get going a little bit.”
While the Blue Devils had run into foul trouble and pushed the Hurricanes into the bonus with their aggressive press, Duke still held on to its advantage. Sophomore guard Oluchi Okananwa had herself a solid 16-point night, scoring an improbable and-one as the ball arced nearly above the backboard. As time wound down in the period, Okananwa again went to the rim, dropping in an acrobatic layup to close out the quarter. Heading into the fourth, Duke just needed to hold on.
The Blue Devils kept the pressure up in the final quarter, as Jackson dished a ball to Delaney Thomas down low for the easy layup, and the hosts rolled up to a 33-point margin. Donovan found herself out on a fast break and dropped in another tough bucket, solidly putting this one away. Duke didn’t let off the brakes despite its lead, and Fournier continued to rack up points with more impressive buckets.
With another strong win against a conference opponent under its belt, Duke will head to Winston-Salem Thursday to take on Wake Forest before a premiere matchup at No. 3 Notre Dame Feb. 17.
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Martin Heintzelman is a Trinity junior and Blue Zone editor of The Chronicle's 120th volume.