The Duke women’s basketball team’s offense was clicking early and often, as they beat visiting Shaw in their first exhibition game at Cameron Indoor Stadium, 138-32.
That score is not a joke.
Duke got on the scoreboard just five seconds into the game, as Allison Vernerey put away a layup.
There was ALOT of Duke scoring.
Tricia Liston went 13-of-15 from the field, including 7-of-8 from three point land. She scored 36 points and chipped in 12 rebounds. She wasn’t the only Blue Devil to record a double-double. Vernerey finished with 15 points and 11 rebounds (eight on the offensive end) to go along with four blocks. Haley Peters played the most minutes (34) and went 6-of-14 from the field (15 points) while hauling in 18 rebounds. Chelsea Gray scored 20 points on 7-of-9 shooting while dishing out ten assists. She also had six steals.
Ka’lia Johnson was the other Duke starter and she came close to a double-double. She scored 16 points on 5-of-13 shooting, She hauled in nine rebounds, dished out five assists, and had five steals.
Their offense didn’t stop there. The bench was just as lethal.
Freshmen Alexis Jones and Sierra Moore also had big games. Jones went 6-of-12 from the field for 16 points. She hauled in nine rebounds and dished out five assists. Moore went 8-of-13 from the field for 17 points. She also hauled in six rebounds.
Jenna Frush got into the game for nine minutes and scored three points on 1-of-4 shooting.
The Duke defense was also clicking. They forced four turnovers in the first three minutes of the game. The Blue Devils ended up forcing 30 turnovers and scoring 41 points off those turnovers.
After the Blue-White scrimmage on Sunday, the ladies wanted to work on rebounding and defense (and pushing the tempo). I think they did a good job of that against Shaw. They out-rebounded Shaw 72-26 and scored 34 second chance points. Shaw recorded just one assist in the game. In terms of up-tempo, the Blue Devils had 48 fast break points.
Next up for the Blue Devils is another home exhibition game, on November 4th against Queens. It is their final exhibition game before beginning the season on November 17th.
