Tag: Reigan Richardson

Duke women’s basketball finishes 17th in final AP Poll

After a stunning second-round upset of Ohio State in the NCAA Women’s Tournament, the Blue Devils finished 17th in the final AP Poll released on Monday.

Duke women’s basketball ended the year 17th in the final AP Poll released on Monday.

The Blue Devils finished the season with a 22-12 record after they made the Sweet 16 in the Women’s NCAA Tournament, upsetting No. 2 seed Ohio State on the way there.

Duke ran into Connecticut, who won the Portland region, in the regional semifinal. Despite the loss, the Blue Devils held the Huskies to a season-low 53 points. No other tournament team held UConn below 69 points.

Leading scorer Reigan Richardson became the second Duke women’s basketball player with multiple 25-point games in the NCAA Tournament after she tallied 25 points against Richmond and 28 points against the Buckeyes in the second round.

Five other ACC teams ended the year inside the Associated Press’s top 25. NC State, a No. 3 seed who made the Final Four, finished fourth after its remarkable tournament run.

Notre Dame (11th), Virginia Tech (18th), and Syracuse (20th) also made the final rankings.

Can the Duke defense slow down Paige Bueckers?

Duke women’s basketball needs to slow down one of the best players in the sport on Saturday, but the Blue Devils might be suited to the task.

Let’s just get it out of the way: UConn’s Paige Bueckers is one of the best college basketball players of the last decade.

Bueckers was named the Player of the Year as a freshman in 2021, averaging 20.0 points. 5.7 assists, 4.9 rebounds, and 2.3 steals in her first season of collegiate basketball. She led the Huskies to the Final Four that season and the national championship game the next.

This year, after missing a full season due to injury, she’s picked up right where she left off. She’s averaging a career-high in points (21.8), rebounds (5.1), and blocks (1.4), and she’s still dishing out 3.9 assists per game.

She’s racked up two double-doubles through two tournament games, dropping 28 points on Jacksonville State and 32 points against Syracuse. She’s pulled down 10.5 rebounds and dealt 6.5 assists per game in the postseason thus far, and she had seven steals between the two games.

In postseason basketball, the sport’s best players can be absolute buzzsaws. Scheme, depth, balance, it can all be thrown out the window if your team doesn’t have anyone to stop Bueckers.

The Blue Devils might not have that problem.

Duke allowed 58.0 points per game this season, the best mark in the ACC and the seventh-best average of any Power 6 school. The Blue Devils are allowing opponents to shoot 36.9% from the floor and 32.0% from beyond the arc.

Kara Lawson’s squad has a strong track record against dominant guards, too.

Syracuse’s Dyaisha Fair, an All-ACC First Team member who averaged 22.3 points per game (the third-most in the conference) got to play the Blue Devils at home in February. She finished 7/25 from the floor, one of just six conference games in which she finished below 30% for the game, and 1/7 from behind the 3-point line. The Orange only scored 45 points.

Florida State’s Ta’Niya Latson, another 20-point-per-game scorer and another All-ACC First Team guard, scored 15 points on 17 shots against the Blue Devils back in January. Duke won that game by 42 points on the Seminoles’ home court.

Even in Duke’s second-round upset of Ohio State, the Buckeyes’ star guard Jacy Sheldon couldn’t get off the ground. Sheldon averaged 18 points per game entering the contest, the third-best mark in the Big Ten, but she could only manage 13 points against the Blue Devils. Sheldon made five of her 13 attempts and just one of her four 3-pointers, and Ohio State went 1/11 as a team from distance.

A player of Bueckers’ caliber presents her own challenges. The only player Duke has seen on her tier this season is Notre Dame’s Hannah Hidalgo, a freshman who leads the conference in both points (22.9) and steals (4.6) while finishing third in assists (5.6). Hidalgo helped the Fighting Irish past Duke with a 23-point game in Cameron last month, but Duke lost that game by eight after losing the third quarter by 12.

The path for a No. 7 seed to make the Elite Eight would always be tough, Bueckers or not. However, if any 7-seed might have a path to slowing down the Huskies dynamic star, it would be the Blue Devils.

Duke becomes only school to win bowl game and reach both Sweet 16s this year

After Sunday’s victories, Duke is the only school to win a football bowl game and make the men’s and women’s Sweet 16 during this academic year.

There’s a real argument that the Blue Devils are having the best year of any athletic program in the country.

After the women’s basketball team upset Ohio State and the men’s basketball team throttled James Madison on Sunday, Duke became the only school to win a bowl game and make the Sweet 16 in the men’s and women’s NCAA Tournament during this academic year.

The Blue Devils beat Troy in the 76 Birmingham Bowl, a 17-10 defensive battle back in December led by interim coach Trooper Taylor. Duke’s football team has now won five consecutive postseason games dating back to 2015.

Junior guard Reigan Richardson has led the women’s basketball team through the postseason thus far. She’s averaged 26.5 points per game so far, including a 28-point performance against Ohio State, and she’s shooting 62.5% from beyond the arc through two games.

On the men’s side, freshman guard Jared McCain has played hero with a 30-point performance against James Madison. He made eight 3-pointers, the most by a Blue Devil in an NCAA Tournament game.

Duke women’s basketball makes the Sweet 16 for the 18th time in program history

The Blue Devils upset Ohio State on Sunday to advance to the Sweet 16 for the 18th time, the first appearance during Kara Lawson’s tenure.

Duke’s statement upset over Ohio State on Sunday afternoon pushed the Blue Devils into the Sweet 16 for the first time under head coach Kara Lawson.

In fact, even though this year will mark Duke’s 18th appearance in the Sweet 16, the Blue Devils hadn’t made it past the second round since 2018.

The Blue Devils have made the national championship game twice, the Final Four four times, and the Elite Eight 11 times. They have a 60-25 record in the NCAA Tournament as a program.

They made it at least as far as the Sweet 16 every year from 1998-2008, lost in the second round in 2009, and then made the Elite Eight in each of the next four seasons.

Despite the program’s pedigree, however, this is the first time Duke has ever made the Sweet 16 as a No. 7 seed. In fact, this is only the second time the Blue Devils have made it this far with a seed below fourth (Duke was a No. 5 seed in 2018).

Lawson has coached Duke for the past four seasons, and she’s compiled a 67-32 overall record and a 3-1 record in the NCAA Tournament during her time in Durham.

Reigan Richardson just put together one of the best two-game postseason stretches in school history

Duke’s school history is littered with postseason basketball legends, and through two games this year, Reigan Richardson is etching her name in those history books.

Few schools have seen as many postseason basketball legends as the Duke Blue Devils. I mean, five national championships speak for themselves.

If you’re looking for the next Durham player to etch their name into school lore, you may not need to look much farther than junior guard Reigan Richardson.

Duke’s leading scorer this season, Richardson averaged about 11.5 points per game through the ACC Tournament. She’s dialed everything up a notch since March Madness began, however.

As the No. 7 seed in the Portland region, the Blue Devils looked like they were on full upset alert through the first two quarters of the opening round. Duke fell behind against No. 10 Richmond, trailing the Spiders 37-28 at the midway point.

Instead of succumbing to the potential loss, however, Richardson scored 12 points in the second half to lead Duke’s returning surge. The Blue Devils outscored the Spiders by 20 points over the final 20 minutes to keep dancing.

The second-half revival looks even better as of Sunday after Richardson and the Blue Devils erased a 16-point first-half deficit to stun No. 2 Ohio State and advance to the Sweet 16 for the first time in six years.

Everywhere you looked during the statement win, there was Richardson. The junior scored 28 points, including 10 in the final quarter, to lead the upset effort.

Through two games in this year’s edition of March Madness, Richardson is shooting 21/36 (58.3%) from the floor and 5/8 (62.5) from 3-point range. She’s averaging 26.5 points per game while no other Blue Devil has scored more than 27 points total.

In fact, Richardson’s 53 points against the Spiders and Buckeyes represent 36% of Duke’s total scoring. She, all by herself, scored more than one-third of the Blue Devils’ points through eight quarters.

On top of that, Richardson came down with seven rebounds in both games. She even generated three steals against the Buckeyes on the defensive end, and she’s only turned the ball over three times.

This is Duke’s 17th trip to the Sweet 16 since 1998, but the Blue Devils have never won two tournament games while seeded lower than fifth in their region. In fact, they’ve only been lower than a No. 4 once, when they were a 5-seed in 2018.

It’s not an exaggeration to call Sunday’s win the biggest upset in program history, and people who score 28 points in the biggest upset in school history deserve their place in program lore.

Those who have watched legends like Christian Laettner pass through Durham over the last four decades have been spoiled by some excellent postseason basketball. Despite the numerous accolades and banners, however, few players have ever propelled their team through the first two rounds quite like Reigan Richardson has in 2024.

Who is Reigan Richardson? Meet the March Madness star who took Duke to its first Sweet 16 since 2018

Meet Reigan Richardson, the Duke star who propelled an upset over Ohio State.

Sunday afternoon in Columbus, Ohio, turned out to be a coming-out party for Duke junior guard Reigan Richardson.

The former Georgia transfer lit up the No. 2 seed Ohio State Buckeyes in a decisive 75-63 upset for the Duke Blue Devils. They did it on the strength of Richardson, who got whatever she wanted as a scorer at all three levels — at the rim, from the midrange, and from 3-point land.

All told Richardson recorded 28 points, seven rebounds, three steals, and an assist. She is the first Duke women’s player to record at least 25 points in back-to-back tournament games since Alana Beard in 2003.

It is perhaps no coincidence then that Richardson’s sterling performance also helped Duke to its first Sweet 16 appearance since 2018:

In her second full season as a starter for the Blue Devils, Richardson has been a steadying presence. Her season-long stat line of 11.9 points, 2.3 rebounds, and 1.6 assists has been a boon for Duke on both ends of the court.

And now, with March Madness in full swing, the experienced player has taken her game to another level. What perfect timing:

Duke survives first-round battle with Richmond after dominant second half

Duke women’s basketball advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament on Friday after a huge second half surge over Richmond.

Duke women’s basketball punched its ticket to the second round on Friday with a 72-61 victory over 10-seed Richmond.

The Blue Devils entered the game as the higher seed, with the committee assigning Duke the No. 7 spot in the Portland 3 region, but the Spiders had the advantage in the early going. The two teams combined for 49 points in an explosive first quarter, with Duke leading most of the way.

The final five minutes all came up Richmond, however. Siobhan Ryan buried a triple to give her team the lead with four minutes left, sneaking the Spiders ahead 16-15 and igniting a 13-6 run. Richmond took a 26-23 lead into the first break of the day.

The second quarter couldn’t have been more different, though. Both teams combined for 16 total points, including just five from the Blue Devils. A 3-pointer from Emma Koabel with three minutes left before halftime was the only made field goal of the frame for Duke despite 14 attempts from the floor.

Luckily, Richmond didn’t fare much better for the second quarter, but the Spiders’ 11 points still gave them 37-28 lead at the midway point, putting Duke squarely on upset alert.

Reigan Richardson, the Blue Devils’ leading scorer from the season, refused to let that go any farther. She made the first basket of the third quarter, a jumper on the opening possession, and Duke hit the ground running. The Blue Devils scored the first nine points of the quarter, swinging it back to a tie game when Ashlon Jackson buried a triple for the exclamation point.

A few minutes later, Richardson made a three of her own, and ACC Sixth Player of the Year Oluchi Okananwa drew a foul, dropping both free throws to give the Blue Devils a three-point lead. Okananwa made another layup a few minutes later before Jackson’s second 3-pointer of the quarter broke the game apart.

When the third quarter was all said and done, the Blue Devils outscored Richmond 23-10 to flip the game from a nine-point deficit to a four-point advantage.

Jackson buried another 3-pointer for the first points of the fourth quarter, and she finished the game with 14 points after shooting 4/7 from beyond the arc.

Richardson caught fire again midway through the final quarter. She went two-for-two from the free-throw line before making two straight baskets on back-to-back possessions, one of which from beyond the 3-point line, leading a 13-7 run from Duke that put the game out of reach.

By the time Richardson’s latter jump shot found the nylon, Duke was leading 67-56 with three minutes to play. Jackson ended the game for good with her fourth and final 3-pointer a minute later.

Richardson finished the game with 25 points, shooting 10/18 from the floor and adding seven rebounds. Center Kennedy Brown added 10 points, seven rebounds, and five assists.

The Blue Devils move on to face No. 2 Ohio State in the second round with the game scheduled for Sunday.

Oluchi Okananwa named ACC Sixth Player of the Year and All-Freshman team member

Duke freshman Oluchi Okananwa averaged 9.6 points and six rebounds per game despite averaging 21 minutes in her debut season, and she won ACC Sixth Player of the Year for her efforts.

The ACC announced its regular-season awards for the 2023-24 season on Tuesday, and Duke freshman Oluchi Okananwa was named the ACC Sixth Player of the Year for her first collegiate season.

Okananwa narrowly beat out NC State’s Zoe Brooks for the honor. The Duke freshman was also named to the ACC All-Freshman team, earning the fourth-most votes of any player on the squad.

The first-year Blue Devil finished third on the team with 9.6 points per game despite only playing 21.2 minutes on average, the sixth-most on the team. She also grabbed 6.1 rebounds and added 1.4 assists per game, and she swiped 1.4 steals per game on the defensive end.

Okananwa’s best game in conference play came against Georgia Tech back in January when she scored 21 points on 7/10 shooting. The Massachusetts native recorded her career-high of 22 points against Richmond in the season-opener.

Teammate Reigan Richardson was named All-ACC Second Team after she averaged 11.9 points, 2.2 rebounds, and 1.7 assists on 43% shooting for the season. She led the Blue Devils in scoring.

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 women’s basketball gets massive upset over No. 6 NC State at home

The Wolfpack came into Durham as the No. 6 team in the country, but Kara Lawson’s Blue Devils made sure they left with a loss.

Everyone in Durham knew NC State would be one of Duke’s biggest tests of the year.

The Wolfpack came into Sunday’s game as the No. 6 team in the USA TODAY Sports Coaches Poll, sporting a 23-4 record. They were the highest-ranked team in the conference coming into the week and a consistent top-five team in the nation over the past five years.

Duke welcomed the challenge, and after four hard-fought quarters, the Blue Devils walked off with a massive 69-58 upset win for in-state bragging rights.

The Blue Devils jumped on the Wolfpack from the opening whistle, scoring 11 of the game’s first 13 points. Duke’s Reigan Richardson seemed content to beat the Wolfpack herself, scoring the game’s first four points in the opening 90 seconds.

A team as good as NC State wouldn’t go away that easily, however, as the Wolfpack fought back within five before the first quarter ended. Their senior center River Baldwin, who ended the game with a 14-point, 10-rebound double-double, scored half of her team’s points in the opening frame.

With the lead just 13-8 as the second quarter began, Blue Devils fans could be forgiven for thinking momentum sided with the seasoned NC State team. Instead, Duke came out hot again, going on a 6-2 run to open the quarter. Sophomore Emma Koabel, who averaged two points in Duke’s last nine games, made two baskets in the opening minutes en route to a three-for-four performance from the floor.

Sophomore Taina Mair started to warm up in the second as well. The former Boston College guard made a jumper in the first two minutes, but a dagger 3-pointer with 2:30 before the half made Duke’s lead double-digits. Another layup later, she led both teams with 10 points at the break.

After the upset seemed vulnerable with the Wolfpack’s closing run in the first, Duke outscored NC State 22-11 in the second quarter to open up a 16-point lead at halftime. Suddenly, what looked to be Duke’s biggest test of the year was starting to become the team’s biggest statement.

Richardson stretched the lead a little further with a jump shot that found the net in the first minute of the second half, and Mair and center Kennedy Brown made 3-pointers within a minute of each other to ballon Duke’s lead to 22 points midway through the quarter.

Brown, who stands 6-foot-6, had only made five 3-pointers for the entire season before the sequence.

The Wolfpack kept trying to force their way back into the game, but Duke never let them gain momentum. NC State’s Aziaha James made two 3-pointers to pull within 13, and Duke answered with three easy baskets to end the run. The Wolfpack made a jump shot, but Richardson buried a triple. Each NC State punch had a Blue Devils counterpunch.

The fourth quarter began with Duke holding firm control of a 15-point lead, and the rocking Cameron Indoor crowd could power the Blue Devils to the finish from there.

The upset looked to teeter for the briefest of moments when Baldwin made a jump shot to pull the Wolfpack within nine with 2:26 to play, but Mair took over once and for all to cement the upset.

She made a layup through contact, drawing the foul and adding the free throw to pull the lead back to 12. After another NC State basket, she drove to the right and laid in a floater off the backboard, screaming and pumping her fists as it found the net.

The Blue Devils coasted from there, and when the final buzzer sounded, the 11-point win was secure. Mair ended the game with 20 points and seven rebounds, and Richardson added 15 points of her own.

The statement win is Duke’s second straight triumph over a ranked team after its Thursday victory over Syracuse, and the Blue Devils move to 18-9 on the season and 10-6 in ACC play. They welcome Virginia to their home court on Thursday next.