As winter sports are underway, The Chronicle is back with our breakdown of every sport, including key rules, terminology, tournament formats and more. Here is our basketball edition, including a section on the common cheers for Duke's home fans.
In a hostile away game at the Yuengling Center against South Florida before a long-awaited break, Duke could not dig itself out of a massive first-half hole, losing 65-56. Heading into halftime, the Bulls led 33-15, as the visitors committed 12 turnovers and scored only six field goals. But in typical Blue Devil manner, head coach Kara Lawson and her team weren’t going to collapse.
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.
From screen assists to tenacious rebounding on both ends of the floor, Duke out-hustled, out-ran and out-dogged the Terriers in every which way. In the first quarter alone, the Blue Devils snagged a whopping 10 offensive rebounds, which they paired with 11 second-chance points. Every loose ball, whether off the rim or the hands of a Wofford player, seemed to end up firmly grasped against a blue jersey.
No. 9 Duke continued its undefeated home record Wednesday night as it routed Wofford 93-58 in Cameron Indoor Stadium. While Rachel Rose’s perseverance kept the Terriers within reach of the Blue Devils at times, Toby Fournier and Oluchi Okananwa were unstoppable from underneath the rim, a key part of the team’s 50 combined paint points.
During the winter season, The Chronicle is polling its readers every week via its Sportswrap newsletter to highlight one Blue Devil athlete’s outstanding performance. This week’s spotlight goes to Toby Fournier of Duke women’s Basketball.
Duke’s first-half defense was impeccable, forcing Virginia Tech to 12 turnovers. The Blue Devil defense was scrappy and filled with tremendous heart, racking up eight steals compared to only one from the Hokies.
After a heavy loss to South Carolina Thursday, the Blue Devils went home angry and ready to get another win under their belt. Freshman Toby Fournier paced the team, scoring a team-high 27 points and coming up just one rebound short of a double-double.
Even despite the tough loss, this game had a lot of value for the Blue Devils. Duke showed significant maturity by sticking in the game until the end and battling up to the final buzzer, proving that it is capable of making one of the best teams in the country sweat and showcasing a level of fight that will be necessary as the Blue Devils head into a grueling conference schedule.
Though Duke was riding high off of a week where it upset then-No. 9 Kansas State and then-No. 8 Oklahoma, the momentum was no match for the well-balanced attack of South Carolina, who defeated the Blue Devils in an aggressive 81-70 contest.
Ahead of No. 8 Duke women’s basketball’s matchup against No. 3 South Carolina on the road, The Chronicle previews the game with an overview, key stat, X-factor and three keys.
Although Duke secured a 77-61 win against the Lions, the game did not go smoothly for both teams. The two sides both recorded 20-plus turnovers throughout the game. Because of the rugged playstyle of this game, the winner was going to be the team with more grit.
The 13th-ranked Blue Devils were hot off of their five-game win streak and came into the game against Columbia ready to continue it, taking the matchup 77-61.
In overtime, No. 13 Duke took a 109-99 victory over eighth-ranked Oklahoma in the Ball Dawgs Classic in Nevada's Lee Family Forum.
Against a much taller Kansas State squad, Duke women's basketball more than made up for its lack of height with the type of tenacious play head coach Kara Lawson’s team’s are known for.
Both teams came into the matchup riding high off of dominant wins, but from the onset, it was clear that any team wanting to walk out of Lee’s Family Forum with the win would need to fight for it. And Monday afternoon, that team was Duke as the team stormed its way to an impressive and hard-fought 73-62 win over Kansas State.
After Duke’s huge defeat of Arizona on the road, the Blue Devils rose one spot to No. 11 in this week’s AP Poll. The Blue Zone breaks down the changes in both the men’s and women’s rankings.
The on-court chemistry was hard to miss along with the team’s paint dominance, high efficiency on the floor and a strong bench performance. At the heart of the Blue Devil’s tremendous victory was freshman Toby Fournier.
In only the second matchup ever between the two programs — and the first in Cameron Indoor — Duke continued to build positive momentum in an authoritative 79-47 win over Belmont. The Blue Devils limited the Bruins to 47 points on 33.3% from the field, and freshman Toby Fournier paced the offense with 25 points on 10-for-15 shooting.
The Blue Devils emerged with a 75-71 victory after a hard-fought, physical matchup. The Jackrabbits proved a worthy opponent after Duke pulled away to a 38-30 halftime lead, fighting back to tie the game and raise the blood pressure of Blue Devil fans everywhere. Raised blood pressure this early in the season might not be the best for fans, but for Lawson’s team, it’s ideal.
