By: Ben McCormick
December 3, 2023
The Duke women’s basketball team (5-3, 0-0 ACC) dropped to the No. 1 South Carolina Gamecocks (7-0, 0-0 SEC), 77-61, in Cameron Indoor Stadium on Sunday afternoon. The Blue Devils played a strong three quarters, but the top-ranked Gamecocks were too much to handle down the stretch. South Carolina owned the interior and, ultimately, owned the night.
From the tip, it was evident that Duke head coach Kara Lawson wanted to take advantage of the two team’s opposite play styles offensively — Duke a perimeter oriented team, South Carolina an interior focused squad. The Blue Devils were persistent in their search for open threes — and they got them early on. Duke shot a solid 4-8 from three in the first quarter.
Freshman Delaney Thomas had a great impact on Duke’s early efforts. The forward reached double-figure scoring in just the first half. After crossing that threshold for the first time on Nov. 19 at then No. 6 Stanford, Thomas has scored 10+ in three of her last four games.
South Carolina claimed its first lead of the game five minutes into the first, but Duke was relentless. The Blue Devils kept trading punches with the Gamecocks. Thomas helped Duke regain the lead with a low post bucket. She proceeded to go down and blocked the Gamecocks’ shot. Duke got the ball and pushed down court quickly. Oluchi Okananwa caught it on the left wing, stopped, set, pulled and drained it. Duke led 17-15 with just over a minute in the first.
That play typified Duke’s first half efforts. They were aggressive from the perimeter and held their ground defensively. Ultimately, South Carolina used its size to its advantage in the second quarter. In what was a highly contested first half, the Gamecocks got a little cushion to their halftime lead, 35-29. As always, South Carolina center Kamilla Cardoso commanded a lot of attention, so Duke was constantly battling inside.
Despite South Carolina’s success in the paint, Duke’s defense forced a flurry of first half turnovers as the Gamecocks gave it up 14 times. Duke had trouble holding on to the ball themselves though with 10 turnovers.
South Carolina’s Chloe Kitts played a big role down low, scoring eight first half points. She and Duke freshman Jadyn Donovan got a little chippy just ahead of the break after Donovan blocked Kitts’ attempted buzzer-beater. Donovan then stared Kitts down.
In the aftermath of the play there were some heated exchanges which led to a double technical foul on Donovan and South Carolina’s Raven Johnson.
That competitive fire continued in the second half. South Carolina’s first bucket of the second half was Kitts knocking down a jumper over none other than Donovan. That set the tone for what became a game of exchanging runs.
Duke had matched the Gamecocks blow for blow in the first. To begin the second half, it was South Carolina swinging and Duke continually taking steps back. Just when it seemed like South Carolina would pull away though, Duke made another push — it was their turn to make a run.
With the clock winding down, Duke junior Reigan Richardson threw a jab step on the right wing and pulled up from three. Nylon. What was once a 15-point lead for South Carolina was down to three heading into the fourth.
The first make of the fourth for either team was Richardson from the opposite wing. Nylon. Duke tied the game up at 55 just over two minutes into the fourth. Richardson scored 15 in the second half to keep the Blue Devils in it.
However, the Gamecocks were not deterred. South Carolina put its foot to the gas and drove Duke out of the game with its relentless attack of the interior. The Blue Devils had run out of answers and suddenly found themselves down double-digits once again. The nation’s top team will remain atop after closing the game strong.
Duke will be back in action next Thursday, Dec. 7, at Clemson.
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