Tag: Kara Lawson

Duke women’s basketball creeps closer to the top 10 in USA TODAY Sports Coaches Poll

The Duke Blue Devils moved up two spots to No. 14 in the updated USA TODAY Sports Women’s College Basketball Coaches Poll.

After a road victory over the South Dakota State Jackrabbits on Sunday, the Duke Blue Devils shifted closer to the top 10 in the USA TODAY Sports women’s college basketball coaches poll on Tuesday.

Duke shuffled up two spots to No. 14 in the rankings, one spot ahead of the North Carolina Tar Heels after UNC’s loss to No. 2 Connecticut. In fact, the Blue Devils are the highest-ranked team with a loss in this week’s rankings.

Head coach Kara Lawson has shown off the balanced scoring attack and harassing defense fans expected during the offseason. The Blue Devils have given up just 61.6 points per game, letting opponents make 39.1% of their shots, while five different players have averaged at least 9.0 points per game.

Sophomore Jadyn Donovan became the latest Duke player to step forward on Sunday, scoring 23 points and adding 23 rebounds in the road win. It was the second 20-point performance from the roster this season (Ashlon Jackson finished with 22 against Liberty).

South Carolina, the reigning national champions who haven’t lost since 2022-23, remained in the top spot with 28 of 30 first-place votes. The Notre Dame Fighting Irish (fifth) are the only ACC team ahead of Duke.

Duke women’s basketball dispatches Dayton thanks to Jordan Wood and Toby Fournier

The Duke women’s basketball team rebounded on Thursday with an 84-49 victory over the Dayton Flyers thanks to two standout underclassmen.

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.

Where does Duke women’s basketball start in the ESPN Bracketology projection?

One game into the 2024-25 season, check out where the Duke women’s basketball team landed in ESPN’s projected bracket.

ESPN’s Charlie Creme released an updated bracket projection for the 2024-25 women’s basketball season on Tuesday, and the Blue Devils open the year as the No. 3 season in Region 2 Birmingham.

Duke opened its season with an 89-36 victory over Radford after sophomore forward Jordan Wood scored a career-high 13 points off the bench. Five other Blue Devils reached double-digits, and the Highlanders shot 23.3% as a team and 17.6% from distance.

“Solid first effort for us,” Lawson said after the game. “I’m sure when we look at the film there will be many things to improve on. I thought we got contributions from a lot of different players…The balance was excellent.”

Eight other teams from the ACC made the bracket, including the Notre Dame Fighting Irish (No. 2 seed, Region 4 Spokane) and the North Carolina Tar Heels (No. 3 seed, Region 1 Birmingham).

The Blue Devils, in their hypothetical March Madness draw, would need to beat the Connecticut Huskies and the LSU Tigers as the top two seeds. South Carolina, last year’s undefeated national champions, also grabbed a top seed, as did the UCLA Bruins and USC Trojans.

Duke women’s basketball dispatches Radford thanks to Jordan Wood’s sophomore emergence

Duke women’s basketball opened its 2024-25 season with a comfortable 89-36 win over Radford powered by a career day from Jordan Wood.

The Duke women’s basketball team opened its anticipated 2024-25 season at Cameron Indoor Stadium on Monday afternoon, and [autotag]Kara Lawson[/autotag] and the Blue Devils resoundingly added a tally to the win column with an 89-36 victory over Radford.

After last year’s trip to the Sweet 16 included an upset of the Ohio State Buckeyes, Duke entered this season ranked No. 11 in the USA TODAY Sports Coaches Poll. The defense certainly looked ready to make a postseason run against the Highlanders as the Blue Devils held Radford to nine points in the opening quarter and 12 points for the entire second half.

Duke came away with 19 steals as a team with six different Blue Devils finished with at least two, including five from reigning ACC Sixth Player of the Year Oluchi Okananwa. The Highlanders shot 23.3% from the floor and 17.6% from 3-point range.

The defense also registered six blocks, including two from sophomore Jordan Wood.

Wood, a 6-foot-4 forward and a four-star prospect out of high school, put together her best collegiate game to start her second year with the program. After only taking the court 14 times as a freshman, she made four of her six shots from the floor and tacked on five free throws for her first double-digit scoring performance, finishing with a team-leading 13 points. She came down with eight rebounds, more than half of her entire 2023-24 total, and logged two steals in a career-high 23 minutes off the bench.

“I took last year as a learning year,” Wood said after the game. “All last year I was learning from the best coach out there — you can quote me on that.”

Reigan Richardson, a member of the Preseason All-ACC Team after she paced the Blue Devils with 12.4 points per game in 2023-24, started her season with 11 points and two rebounds. Four other Duke players added at least 10 points to the winning effort, including 10 from Okananwa and 12 from forward Delaney Thomas.

“Solid first effort for us,” Lawson said after the game. “I’m sure when we look at the film there will be many things to improve on. I thought we got contributions from a lot of different players…The balance was excellent.”

Duke travels to Virginia for a Thursday night game against Liberty, the first of three road games in the team’s next four contests.

Duke women’s basketball narrowly misses top 10 of preseason USA TODAY Sports Coaches Poll

USA TODAY Sports released its preseason women’s basketball coaches poll on Thursday. Check out where the Blue Devils ended up here.

USA TODAY Sports released the preseason women’s basketball coaches poll on Thursday, and the Duke Blue Devils ended up in the exact same spot as they did in the Associated Press rankings.

The Blue Devils came in 11th in the poll, finishing just eight points behind the Oklahoma Sooners for a spot in the top 10.

The South Carolina Gamecocks, the defending national champions after last season’s undefeated campaign, finished with all but four of the first-place votes to start the year in the top spot.

Looking at the ACC, only the Notre Dame Fighting Irish and NC State Wolfpack finished with more points than the Blue Devils. Those same two teams were the only two above Duke in the ACC’s preseason poll as head coach Kara Lawson and her team were picked to finish third in the conference.

After last year’s Sweet 16 run included a regular-season win over the Wolfpack and a second-round upset of the Ohio State Buckeyes, each of Duke’s top four scorers return for the 2024-25 season. Reigan Richardson, who led the roster with 12.4 points per game, was named to the Preseason All-ACC Team, and five-star freshman Toby Fournier led the Newcomer of the Year Watch List voting.

Check out the complete Coaches Poll below.

Rank School (Last Year’s Record) Points First Place Votes
1 South Carolina (38-0) 770 27
2 Connecticut (33-6) 734 3
3 Southern California (29-6) 716 1
4 Texas (33-5) 670 –
5 Notre Dame (28-7) 629 –
6 UCLA (27-7) 612 –
7 LSU (31-6) 567 –
8 North Carolina State (31-7) 533 –
9 Iowa State (21-12) 487 –
10 Oklahoma (23-10) 457 –
11 Duke (22-12) 449 –
12 Baylor (26-8) 434 –
13 Kansas State (26-8) 407 –
14 Ohio State (26-6) 405 –
15 West Virginia (25-8) 285 –
16 North Carolina (20-13) 263 –
17 Louisville (24-10) 261 –
18 Maryland (19-14) 254 –
19 Florida State (23-11) 177 –
20 Creighton (26-6) 150 –
21 Mississippi (24-9) 135 –
22 Kentucky (12-20) 106 –
23 Nebraska (23-12) 92 –
24 Indiana (26-6) 75 –
25 Alabama (24-10) 57 –

Receiving Votes

Gonzaga 49; TCU 37; Tennessee 32; Stanford 32; Iowa 28; Utah 25; South Dakota State 22; Oregon State 21; Princeton 18; Colorado 15; Virginia Tech 10; Illinois 9; Middle Tennessee 8; Fairfield 7; Richmond 6; California 6; Auburn 5; UNLV 4; Miami (FL) 4; FGCU 4; South Florida 3; George Mason 2; Saint Joseph’s 1; Michigan 1; Cleveland State 1

Five-star Duke women’s basketball freshman leads ACC Newcomer Watch List

Duke women’s basketball freshman Toby Fournier, a top-10 prospect in the Class of 2024, led the ACC’s Newcomer Watch List.

The ACC released its preseason women’s basketball voting results on Tuesday, and Duke freshman Toby Fournier finished atop the Newcomer Watch List.

Fournier, a five-star talent from the Class of 2024, finished 10th on the 2024 HoopGurlz Recruiting Rankings from espnW. A 6-foot-2 forward from Canada, the Blue Devils already posted a video of her dunking in practice ahead of her debut season.

Duke head coach [autotag]Kara Lawson[/autotag] brought back her four leading scorers from the 2023-24 season, but all of them play in the backcourt. Senior center Kennedy Brown, who averaged 8.2 points and 5.6 rebounds per game, won’t be back, so there’s a clear role for Fournier to fill on the court.

Lawson brought her and fellow five-star forward Arianna Roberson to add an interior presence to her roster, but Roberson will miss her entire freshman season with a knee injury. It’s easy to picture a world in which Fournier leads the team in rebounds this season, and on a team picked to finish third in the conference, that could be enough for some hardware.

Fournier finished with 222 points in the newcomer voting, 42 more than any other freshman (Louisville’s Imari Berry got 180 points).

Duke women’s basketball picked to finish third in the ACC in preseason poll

Fresh off a Sweet 16 appearance, the Duke Blue Devils were picked to finish third in the ACC women’s basketball preseason poll.

The ACC released its preseason women’s basketball poll on Tuesday, and voters think the Blue Devils will finish third in the conference this season.

Duke finished the 2023-24 season with a 22-12 record and an 11-7 mark against ACC opponents, good enough for a tie for seventh in the conference. The best results came toward the end of the season, however, with a top-10 victory over NC State in late February before an upset of the Ohio State Buckeyes in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

In an era of college sports defined by roster turnover and the transfer portal, Blue Devils head coach [autotag]Kara Lawson[/autotag] kept a remarkable amount of 2023-24 production. Six of the team’s seven leading scorers from last season return to Durham, most notably Reigan Richardson (team-high 12.4 points per game) and ACC Sixth Person of the Year Oluchi Okananwa (9.7 points and 6.1 rebounds in 21.4 minutes).

Lawson also pulled in three five-star recruits on the trail with freshman forwards Toby Fournier and Arianna Roberson (the latter of whom will unfortunately miss the season with a knee injury) and Maryland transfer Riley Nelson.

It all adds up to a team that starts the year 11th in the Associated Press rankings.

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish, led by last year’s freshman sensation Hannah Hidalgo, ran away with the voting after receiving 70 of the 79 first-place votes. The Wolfpack finished second with eight of the other votes, and the North Carolina Tar Heels were picked to finish sixth.

Duke women’s basketball starts 11th in preseason AP Poll

The Associated Press revealed its preseason women’s basketball rankings on Tuesday, and the Blue Devils start just outside the top 10.

The Associated Press released its preseason women’s basketball rankings on Tuesday, and the Blue Devils nearly cracked the top 10.

Duke starts the year at No. 11 in the rankings with 439 points, just two behind the Oklahoma Sooners for the 10th spot.

The Blue Devils reached the Sweet 16 for the first time under head coach Kara Lawson last season, taking down the No. 2-seeded Ohio State Buckeyes in the second round. That win came just weeks after a top-10 upset of the NC State Wildcats at Cameron Indoor Stadium, and Duke finished the season with a 22-12 record.

Five of Duke’s six leading scorers return to Durham, including Reigan Richardson (12.4 points per game), Taina Mair (9.8 points), and ACC Sixth Person of the Year Oluchi Okananwa (9.7 points). Lawson pulled in five-star freshman forward Toby Fournier and Maryland transfer Riley Nelson, a five-star recruit from the Class of 2023, to supplement the roster.

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish, led by star sophomore Hannah Hidalgo, start the year as the highest-ranked ACC team at No. 6. The Wolfpack (No. 9), North Carolina Tar Heels (No. 15), Louisville Cardinals (No. 17), and Florida State Seminoles (No. 19) all made the top 25 as well.

Duke gets the 2024-25 season underway against Radford on November 4.

The best Duke women’s basketball photos from Countdown to Craziness

Get your first looks at the 2024-25 Duke women’s basketball team and head coach Kara Lawson after Friday night’s Countdown to Craziness.

The Duke women’s basketball team carries heightened expectations into the 2024-25 season. After head coach [autotag]Kara Lawson[/autotag] and the Blue Devils beat a top-10 NC State team at home and upset the Ohio State Buckeyes en route to the Sweet 16, Duke retained six of its seven leading scorers.

Lawson picked up freshman forward Toby Fournier, a top-10 player in the Class of 2024, and former five-star prospect Riley Nelson from Maryland through the transfer portal. Even this week, 2025 five-star guard Emilee Skinner committed to the program.

The Blue Devils now look poised to make noise in the ACC, but on Friday night in Cameron Indoor Stadium, the weight of expectations were nowhere to be found. Lawson and her roster kicked off the Countdown to Craziness with a scrimmage, reintroducing fans to stars like Reigan Richardson and Taina Mair.

Here are the best photos of the Blue Devils from their season-opening exhibition in front of the Duke basketball fans.

Duke women’s basketball coach Kara Lawson lands another five-star commitment

Emilee Skinner, a top-10 women’s basketball prospect, became the third five-star Duke commitment in two years on Friday.

Duke women’s basketball coach Kara Lawson did it again on Friday, this time pulling in a commitment from five-star point guard Emilee Skinner.

Skinner, a 6-foot guard who plays for Ridgeline High School in Utah, currently ranks as the No. 7 overall player in the 2025 HoopGurlz Recruiting Rankings from espnW. According to MaxPreps, she averaged 24.0 points, 7.7 rebounds, 4.3 assists, 3.5 steals, and 1.7 blocks per game as a junior in 2023-24.

With her decision, Skinner became the fourth five-star high school recruit to join the program in the last year. Forwards Toby Fournier and Arianna Roberson, the 10th- and 17th-ranked players in the 2024 HoopGurlz Recruiting Rankings, both committed to Lawson in the previous cycle (although Roberson will miss her freshman season due to injury).

Riley Nelson, a five-star prospect from the Class of 2023 who spent her freshman season with Maryland, transferred to the Blue Devils this offseason.

Lawson also retained six of her seven leading scorers from last season’s run to the Sweet 16, which included an upset of the 2-seed Ohio State Buckeyes in the postseason.

If Skinner wants evidence of what Duke point guards can do with their careers, she can look no further than WNBA star [autotag]Chelsea Gray[/autotag]. The ‘Point Gawd’ won her second Olympic gold medal in Paris earlier this summer, a nice pairing with her three WNBA championships and Finals MVP.