The Duke women’s basketball team kept rolling on Sunday with a 77-61 victory over the Columbia Lions charged by 19 points from senior guard Reigan Richardson.
The Blue Devils returned to Durham after a resume-changing week in Nevada, defeating the Kansas State Wildcats and Oklahoma Sooners to win the Ball Dawgs Classic and extend their winning streak to five.
Richardson, who scored 35 points in the title game against the Sooners, picked up right where she left off at Cameron Indoor Stadium. She set up Jadyn Donovan for an opening layup less than a minute into the game and added seven points of her own before the end of the opening frame, including a 3-pointer with 30 seconds left on the clock to build a 25-15 lead.
Richardson ended the game with 19 points and seven rebounds, making two of her three 3-point looks and eight of her 14 shots overall.
The Lions closed within eight points with 1:29 left to play before halftime, but Vanessa de Jesus knocked down a triple before assisting another Donovan bucket in the final 10 seconds. In an instant, a potential second-half nailbiter became a 43-30 Duke lead.
The Lions notched 21 third-quarter points as they tried to claw back into the contest, but seven more points from Richardson helped the Blue Devils produce 20 points of their own to stay ahead. Columbia never closed within 12 in the final frame.
de Jesus and Oluchi Okananwa came off the bench and combined for 14 points and 10 assists in just 39 minutes, and star freshman Toby Fournier added 10 points of her own for her sixth double-digit performance in nine games.
Solid win for us. Got contributions from a lot of players,” head coach Kara Lawson said after the game. “We continue to get good production off our bench, which is necessary.”
The Blue Devils get three days off now before a Thursday road trip to South Carolina for a game against the defending national champion Gamecocks.