The Duke women’s basketball team played its first game in 10 days on Wednesday night, but the Blue Devils sure didn’t look like a team that needed to shake off any rust.
After more than a week off, Duke held Wofford to just seven first-quarter points in a 93-58 win powered by freshman [autotag]Toby Fournier[/autotag] and sophomore [autotag]Oluchi Okananwa[/autotag] off the bench.
The five-star freshman didn’t begin Wednesday’s game on the floor, but she still put Duke’s first eight points on the board thanks to a trio of layups and a pair of free throws. Senior star Reigan Richardson assisted on each of the first two, part of her career-high 10 dimes for the outing.
Fournier reached 10 points on her own with 3:40 left in the first quarter, her eighth double-digit performance in Duke’s first 12 games. The Terriers only made three shots from the floor in the opening frame, and Fournier outscored the road team by herself in a 22-7 quarter.
Fournier ended the first half with 16 points, part of her 23 for the game. It’s the first-year forward’s third 20-point outing of the season and her second in a row after she dropped 27 on Virginia Tech in the ACC opener. She’s averaged 1.04 points per minute in the last two games.
Okananwa, the reigning ACC Sixth Person of the Year, took over for the final 20 minutes. She put seven points on the board in a two-minute flurry early in the third, putting a stamp on her personal run with a triple to open up a 53-25 advantage. With three more baskets in the closing quarter, Okananwa contributed 13 of her 20 points after the midway point.
Okananwa made nine of her 14 shots from the floor, but her real work came off the ball in one of the most well-rounded box scores of the season. The second-year Blue Devil ended up with six rebounds, five assists, and four steals.
Duke’s defense couldn’t quite match its 28-point pace from the first 10 minutes, but Wofford never picked up any steam until the game was well out of reach. The Terriers didn’t reach 20 points for the evening until the final two minutes of the first half, and they finished the game just 22/65 (33.8%) from the field and 7/28 (25.0%) from 3-point range.
The Blue Devils won all four quarters, two of them by at least 10 points, in the 35-point triumph.
Duke, now 10-2 for the season and riding a two-game win streak, will head to Tampa for a road game against South Florida this Saturday.
