Tag: Kennedy Brown

Duke women’s basketball glides to easy senior night win over Virginia

Duke honored a pair of seniors ahead of Thursday night’s game against Virginia before breezing past Virginia for a third straight win.

Duke women’s basketball picked up a 73-54 win over Virginia on Thursday evening for a third consecutive victory.

The Blue Devils, fresh off a stunning home upset of then-No. 6 NC State on Sunday, honored two seniors ahead of their final home game of the 2023-24 season. Center Kennedy Brown and forward Camilla Emsbo both walked to mid-court before the game, arm-in-arm with their families, as Duke fans showered them with appreciation for their time in Durham.

Once the game against the Cavaliers tipped off, the Blue Devils gave fans plenty of reasons to keep cheering. Duke scored the game’s first nine points, seven of which came from leading scorer Reigan Richardson after she knocked down a triple in the opening minute.

Virginia finally got on the board with a layup, but Richardson added another basket before a jumper from Taina Mair made it a 13-2 ballgame within four minutes.

Brown also got off to a solid start in her final game at Cameron, scoring four points in the opening quarter.

The Cavaliers fought back within five points before the end of the first and closed within three points in the early second, but Brown answered with a basket to rebuild the lead before back-to-back buckets from Jadyn Donovan stretched the advantage to nine once again.

Brown truly dominated the early second quarter the most. The senior center added eight points within a five-minute stretch to extend Duke’s lead, and she had 12 points for the game with four minutes to play before halftime.

She finished the game with 13 points, eight rebounds, and three assists while Emsbo added four points and two rebounds herself.

With the lead up to 11 points at the halftime break, the third quarter was the game’s quietest for both sides. After Duke scored 40 points in the first two quarters, the Blue Devils managed only 13 in the third frame. That was still enough to build the lead farther, however, as Virginia only managed 11.

Richardson took over again once the fourth quarter kicked off. She made two jumpers and a free throw in the first two minutes, and she added two more baskets before the end of the game to bring her total for the night to 24. She made 10 of her 14 field goal attempts during the game, and she added four rebounds and two assists.

The 19-point victory gave Duke a third consecutive win, moving the Blue Devils to 19-9 on the season and 11-6 against ACC opponents. Sunday’s finale against North Carolina in Chapel Hill will give the Blue Devils a chance for a 20-win season.

Duke soundly beats No. 17 Syracuse on the road for statement victory

The Blue Devils played their third straight ranked opponent on Thursday and finally picked up a win, beating the Orange on the road in a defensive battle.

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.

Duke’s late comeback effort not enough in home loss to No. 17 Notre Dame

Duke gave the No. 17 Fighting Irish all they could handle at Cameron on Monday night, but Notre Dame pulled away late in the third quarter.

Duke made a valiant effort to upset No. 17 Notre Dame in front of the home fans on Monday night, but the Fighting Irish managed to pull away late in the third quarter.

The Blue Devils donned pink-trimmed uniforms for the team’s annual Pink Game, which honors breast cancer survivors and those still fighting the disease. Head coach Kara Lawson leaned as far into the theme as possible with an all-pink suit and pink-laced sneakers.

Both teams started a little slowly on the offensive end, but a 3-pointer from Taina Mair five minutes into the game gave the Blue Devils the lead. The basket kick-started an 8-0 run, mostly due to the efforts of Reigan Richardson. The Blue Devils’ leading scorer so far this season made two free throws before burying a three of her own, and suddenly, the ranked Irish were down 13-7 on the road in front of an energized Duke crowd.

Richardson continued her impressive form throughout the game, reaching double digits midway through the second quarter. She finished with a team-leading 23 points, her most since the season-opener against Richmond. She shot 8/17 from the floor and 3/10 from beyond the arc.

The Fighting Irish were too talented to remain down for long, however. They clawed their way back to a one-point lead by the end of the opening quarter, but two early baskets from Richardson and Mair opened the door for another Duke run.

Senior center Kennedy Brown came up big over the ensuing few minutes, assisting one basket and scoring another herself. Her presence in the interior kept the Blue Devils alive and ahead for long stretches of the game, and she finished with four points, five rebounds, four assists, two steals, and a staggering five blocks.

“Kennedy has been our best defensive player for two years,” Lawson said after the game. “She is our quarterback on defense.”

Richardson made another massive basket near the end of the half, a jumper in the final minute, to grow Duke’s lead to 30-27 at the break.

The advantage wasn’t meant to last, however. Over a five-minute span in the middle of the third quarter, the Fighting Irish held Duke completely scoreless while adding 14 points themselves. After 25 solid minutes of work toward an upset, the Blue Devils went from leading by three to trailing by 11 within the blink of an eye.

The fourth quarter couldn’t give Duke the spark it wanted. The Blue Devils put up 23 points, the most of any quarter on Monday, but Notre Dame responded with 22 points of its own to ensure the lead never grew smaller than seven. A brief glimmer of hope appeared with two minutes left when Ashlon Jackson nailed a 3-pointer to cut the lead to that exact margin, but Notre Dame scored, forced a turnover, and scored again to deflate the balloon.

The Blue Devils leave a hard two-game stretch between Virginia Tech and the Irish with two hard-fought losses, and the Blue Devils are now 16-9 and 8-6 in conference play. They take the court again against Syracuse on Thursday.