The Duke women’s basketball team stayed No. 14 for the third consecutive week in Monday’s updated AP Top 25 Women’s College Basketball Poll.
The Blue Devils ended their holiday break last Thursday with an 86-59 victory over Boston College, a game that included one of the best defensive quarters in program history. The Eagles went 1/10 from the floor in the second frame to only put two points on the board, the third time Duke has ever allowed just two points in a quarter.
Duke played again on Sunday and put forth an even better defensive effort against Pittsburgh, winning 69-31 after holding the Panthers to just 21 points in the first three quarters. Pittsburgh shot 11/45 (24.4%) from the floor over the entire game, the lowest of any Blue Devils opponent since Radford connected on just 23.3% of its looks in the opener.
The Notre Dame Fighting Irish remain the highest-ranked ACC team at No. 3, trailing only the UCLA Bruins and South Carolina Gamecocks. The USC Trojans and Texas Longhorns finished up the top five, and the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets came in one spot above Duke as the second-best team in the conference.
The North Carolina Tar Heels, Duke’s next opponent, dropped two spots to No. 19. The Blue Devils travel to Chapel Hill on Thursday.