Duke took its biggest lead early in the fourth quarter when redshirt sophomore Rebecca Greenwell made two straight shots in the paint to make the score 55-50 with 7:05, but Notre Dame came back with 13 straight points to win 68-61.
After two quarters of play, Notre Dame leads the Blue Devils 35-27 at Cameron Indoor Stadium, guided by freshman Arike Ogunbowale’s 12 points.
The Blue Zone takes a look at another busy week in the world of women's college basketball.
Duke is riding a four-game winning streak but will have to quiet one of the nation's most explosive offenses to claim its first win of the season against a ranked opponent.
The Chronicle's Jack Dolgin recaps the weekend in Duke athletics. With no basketball games from Friday to Sunday, the focus well on the tennis teams, which both took on Northwestern.
The Blue Devils will face perhaps their toughest test of the season against No. 3 Notre Dame Monday at Cameron Indoor Stadium at 6 p.m.
Azura Stevens is the Blue Zone's Player of the Week after putting up big numbers against Pittsburgh en route to Duke's fourth consecutive victory.
Sophomore Azurá Stevens dominated the scoring in the early going, notching 16 of Duke’s 34 first-half points as Duke continued its hot streak Thursday, knocking off Pittsburgh 70-48 at the Petersen Events Center.
Duke has snapped out of a slump at the start of conference play with three straight convincing wins, thanks in large part to the improved play of Kyra Lambert while freshman Angela Salvadores has watched from the bench due to an injured ankle.
Nearly 12 months ago, in the early minutes of an ACC contest in Winston Salem, N.C., the Duke training staff was once again attending to Oderah Chidom.
Playing at the top of a half-court trap that transitioned into a 3-2 zone, Azurá Stevens was a difference-maker for Duke Sunday, adding two blocks and numerous deflections to her 26-point, 14-rebound performance.
Azure Stevens is the Blue Zone's Player of the Week after a pair of solid performances in wins against Clemson and North Carolina.
Azurá Stevens poured in 26 points and grabbed 14 rebounds for her 12th double-double of the season, and graduate student Amber Henson snagged a career-high 16 rebounds to help Duke outscore North Carolina 21-7 in second-chance points and send the Tar Heels to their fifth straight conference loss.
For the first time since January 1992, the Blue Devils and Tar Heels will battle for Tobacco Road supremacy with neither squad ranked in the Associate Press women’s college basketball rankings.
Behind a pair of dominant runs to start both halves, the Blue Devils eased away from Clemson 72-43, vanquishing the road demons that had plagued Duke for much of the season.
Sophomore forward Azurá Stevens torched the Tigers for a career-high 33 points on 11-of-19 shooting as the Blue Devils won their first game as an unranked team since 1999.
Whether you want to count it as 16 years, 312 weeks or 2,184 days, Duke has been a staple of the weekly Associated Press women's college basketball rankings. As of Monday, the third-longest streak in poll history is no more.
Thursday's 65-62 home loss to N.C. State was likely to cost Duke its spot in the AP top 25, a fate the poll voters confirmed Monday afternoon, ending a streak that began Nov. 29, 1999.
Rebecca Greenwell and Kelly Hughes entered a 3-point shooting contest Sunday, but the Eagles had no answer for a dominant performance by the Duke frontcourt.
