The Duke Blue Devils came closer to a second straight loss than head coach [autotag]Kara Lawson[/autotag] probably wanted on Sunday afternoon, but sophomore [autotag]Oluchi Okananwa[/autotag] helped her team score 40 second-half points for a 60-55 victory over the Virginia Cavaliers.
Duke took the North Carolina Tar Heels to overtime in their first rivalry battle of the year on Thursday, but the team from Chapel Hill eventually pulled away in the defensive slugfest. It was only the Blue Devils’ first ACC loss of the season, but with heavyweights like the Notre Dame Fighting Irish in the conferece, they couldn’t afford to fall farther behind this early in the campaign.
In similar fashion to that midweek battle, however, points were hard to come by in Charlottesville. The only scoring in the first three mintes came on a free throw from the Cavaliers’ Latasha Lattimore, setting the tone for another gritty game.
Lattimore carried Virginia to an early lead, scoring five points in the opening frame to help build an 11-9 lead as Duke just treaded water on offense. A pair of 3-pointers from Olivia McGhee in the second pushed the lead to eight, and the Blue Devils shot just 9/34 (26.5%) from the field and 1/10 from distance before the break.
Okananwa, the reigning ACC Sixth Person of the Year, only tallied three points in the first 20 minutes as the Blue Devils fell behind 29-20. The second-year star has already stacked some clutch outings in her young career, however, and she added to the legend over the closing quarters.
After starters Reigan Richardson and Ashlon Jackson combined for 10 points in the first four minutes of the third, Okananwa knocked down a triple with 4:11 left in the period to pull within four. Lattimore answered again, continuing to build an impressive stat line, but Okananwa and five-star freshman Toby Fournier made two layups and a pair of free throws in a one-minute blitz to make it a 41-39 game.
Okananwa turned a good day into a great one in the final quarter. She buried another 3-pointer just 11 seconds into the fourth before notching another layup after a Virginia turnover, and all of a sudden, the Blue Devils held the lead with 9:10 left.
The Cavaliers retook the lead briefly, but a Taina Mair 3-pointer with 5:09 left on the clock gave the road team an advantage it wouldn’t relinquish.
Okananwa finished with 17 points, nine of which came in the fourth quarter, and seven rebounds, and Jackson added 11 of her own. Duke took 66 shots to Virginia’s 51, and the Blue Devils ended the game with a 44-29 advantage on the glass.
The Blue Devils improved to 13-4 for the season and 4-1 in conference play with the victory. Duke returns to Cameron Indoor Stadium on Thursday for a game against the California Golden Bears.
