The Duke women’s basketball team bounced back into the victory column on Thursday night with an 84-49 win over Dayton powered by multiple excellent performances off the bench.
After Sunday’s loss to Maryland, head coach [autotag]Kara Lawson[/autotag] and the Blue Devils slipped down to 16th in the newest USA TODAY Sports Women’s Basketball Coaches Poll. Despite returning to the friendly walls of Cameron Indoor Stadium, Duke surrendered the first eight points of the game thanks to a pair of 3-pointers from the Flyers.
Dayton’s upper hand completely vanished from there, however. Junior Ashlon Jackson, just one week removed from her 22-point performance against Liberty, made a triple and a layup to take the lid off the basket.
The real boost, however, came from the bench. Freshman forward Toby Fournier, who scored at least 10 points in each of the first three games, notched a go-ahead basket before fighting her way to the basket again on the following possession. All of a sudden, just minutes after not having any points on the board, the Blue Devils led by three.
Fournier finished with 15 points, five rebounds, and three steals, but she wasn’t even the most prolific player off the bench. Jordan Wood ended the evening with a team-high 17 points, including five in the first two minutes of the second quarter.
When Wood buried a 3-point attempt just 12 minutes into the game, the Blue Devils led by 10, and the Cameron Crazies could breathe easy knowing no upsets would take place in Durham.
Duke led by 14 points at the break and outscored the Flyers 47-26 over the last 20 minutes, letting Lawson enjoy a 35-point margin of victory.
“Proud of our group,” Lawson said after the game. “I thought our second half we were able to improve in some key areas. We challenged them at halftime to rebound better so that was nice to see.”
Duke finished with 48 rebounds to Dayton’s 30, and Jadyn Donovan finished with nine by herself. Six different Blue Devils scored at least 10 for the game, and 58 of the team’s 84 points came from the second unit.
The Blue Devils travel again this weekend for a Sunday game against South Dakota State on Sunday afternoon.