The Duke women’s basketball team faced its third consecutive ranked opponent on Thursday night, the No. 17 Syracuse Orange.
After back-to-back losses to Virginia Tech and Notre Dame, however, the Blue Devils came out on the right side of the defensive battle with a 58-45 win on the road.
The Duke defense completely stifled Syracuse for the entire opening half, as the Orange only had 17 points by halftime.
Star guard Dyaisha Fair, who was named the Jersey Mike’s Naismith Women’s College Player of the Week earlier this month, made just seven of her 25 shots and finished 1/7 from beyond the 3-point line. Fair still managed 22 points, almost her exact average so far this season, but she entered Thursday’s game shooting 40% on the year.
Her teammate Georgia Woolley finished 3/11 from the floor, and no Orange player with more than two attempts shot better than 33% for the evening. Syracuse ended the game shooting 25% from the floor and 18.8% from beyond the arc as a team.
On the offensive end, the Blue Devils had a disappointing day from long range, making just three of 18 3-point attempts, but the interior efficiency was more than enough given how hard they made Syracuse’s life across the court.
Center Kennedy Brown led the team with 12 points, making four of her six attempts, while Reigan Richardson added 11 points of her own. Taina Mair couldn’t get her 3-pointers to fall, but she dished out nine assists to her teammates, a new season high.
Duke was as dominant on the glass as it was on defense. Guard Jadyn Donovan came down with 15 rebounds, seven of them on the offensive end, and three other Blue Devils finished with five or more rebounds. On the night, Duke more than doubled the Orange on the boards with 52 to Syracuse’s 25.
The win, Duke’s 17th on the season, moved the Blue Devils to 9-6 in conference play with three games left in the regular season. A massive in-state matchup looms against No. 6 NC State on Sunday.