Duke Hands Miami First ACC Defeat This Season

A short-handed #16 Duke team was able to defeat the Miami Hurricanes at home and hand them their first conference loss of the season. Sophmore forward Oderah Chidom was out for this game with a shoulder injury and Duke only had 8 scholarship players available for this game. Duke moves to 13-5 on the season and 4-1 in the ACC, now tied for the second best record in the conference with Miami and Notre Dame.

Offensively, Duke was able to use their height to dominate in the paint, where they scored 52 of their 68 points. They were led in scoring by Elizabeth Williams who had a dominating 24 points and 11 rebounds for her 5th double-double this season and the 24th of her career, along with freshman forward Azurá Stevens who finished with a career-high 20 points, 7 rebounds, and 3 assists. Even with the lack of depth and struggles from guard Rebecca Greenwell (5 pts, 2-9 shooting), others were able to step up this game. Kendall Cooper added 7 points and 2 blocks off of the bench, Ka’lia Johnson finished with 9 points, 7 rebounds, and 4 assists, and Amber Henson, who was moved into the starting lineup in place of Chidom, only scored 3 points but contributed 10 rebounds and 3 blocks.

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The Duke defense this game was also excellent this game. The Blue Devils also did a great job defending Miami star Adrienne Motley, the reigning ACC and ESPNW Player of the Week (Jan. 12), who finished with only 8 points, shooting 3-16 from the field, and 0-5 3pt after a 32 point outing a couple of weeks ago in their upset of Notre Dame. The Hurricanes were led by Necole Sterling who finished with 17 points and was the only scorer in double figures for the Canes.

Duke also made things very difficult for Miami in the paint, allowing only 6 points in the paint, out-rebounding the Hurricanes 47-33, and totaling 7 blocks. Their zone was able to pack in the paint and cause Miami to shoot poorly from the field (37 three pointers but they were only able to convert on 8. The past few games Duke has caused teams to shoot an extremely high number of 3s with their last 4 opponents attempting more than 30.

Miami coach Katie Meier, in her tenth year with the Hurricanes, is a Duke alum and played for the Blue Devils from 1986-1990 including winning the 1986 ACC Freshman of the Year award and currently ranks 5th on Duke’s all-time scoring list with 1,761 points. In this game, Elizabeth Williams moved up to 7th on the Duke all-time scoring list with 1,710 career points. Next, Duke will head to Boston College to take on the Eagles who are currently last place in the ACC on Thursday Jan. 22nd before heading to UNC to take on the #12 Tar Heels in their rivalry game Jan. 25th.