Duke women’s basketball fight comes up short against No. 1 South Carolina Gamecocks
After seeing the ball hit the net, Duke junior guard Reigan Richardson turned and roared, clenching her firsts and finding teammate Taina Mair for an emphatic chest bump as the third-quarter buzzer sounded.
Unranked Duke had just cut its deficit to three points against No. 1 South Carolina. The Blue Devils had the momentum entering the final frame. Even Gamecocks head coach Dawn Staley admitted that.
Yet, despite their late-game push, the Blue Devils’ 77-61 defeat at the hands of South Carolina penned another “would’ve, could’ve, should’ve” page in the underdog story of Duke women’s basketball. Sunday marked the second close loss for the Blue Devils against a top-10 opponent this season after its 82-79 overtime defeat against then-No. 6 Stanford on Nov. 19.
When asked to compare the losses, Duke head coach Kara Lawson paused for several seconds. She let out a “Hmm” as she contemplated the question. Then, in a near mutter:
“Horseshoes and hand grenades,” she said. “Close doesn’t matter. It’s win or loss.”
She paused again.
“We have shown the ability to compete in the environment,” Lawson added. “The next thing we have to show is the ability to win in the environment. And we don’t have that yet.”
Duke has indeed shown the ability to compete against top-tier programs, perhaps to its surprise. Take for example Richardson’s career-high five 3-pointers against the top-ranked Gamecocks. It’s a statistic Richardson wasn’t aware of until after the game, at which point she grinned and said, ”I didn’t know I made five. I made five?”
The junior guard said she was just focused on Lawson’s game plan. Richardson wasn’t keeping tally when she buried a buzzer-beater from behind the arc at the end of the third quarter, or when she tied the game in the fourth. It was pure feel, emphasized by her subsequent celebrations.
And in Duke’s timeout before the final quarter, Mair, Richardson and several Blue Devils smiled as they formed a semi-circle around Lawson, leaning forward to glean her late-game intel.
Despite their youthful optimism, Duke faced an experienced South Carolina program. And thanks to copious postseason success, the Gamecocks had been in that same situation before. They knew how to execute and did — outscoring the Blue Devils, 22-9, in the final quarter behind a composed effort.
“We stopped turning the ball over and we stopped taking bad shots,” Staley said. “Those are the two things that allowed them to get back in the game. We know what it is. When you have a team that can actually see and make the adjustment, that’s when you’re sayin’ something.”
South Carolina had to flip the momentum, so they went to senior center Kamila Cardoso.
“Kamila delivered for us time and time again,” Staley said.
Cardoso, assisted by freshman guard MiLaysia Fulwiley’s slashing ability, totaled eight fourth-quarter points. The Gamecocks dominated around the rim to the tune of 16 paint points in the final 10 minutes while the Blue Devils missed eight of their last 10 shots.
After a 21-6 Duke run to tie the score at 55-55, South Carolina answered with its own 21-6 run to end the game.
“They just executed better down the stretch to create the final margin,” Lawson said. “Good lesson for us.”
The lesson? Despite Duke’s defensive prowess and relative progress over the past few years — last season, the Blue Devils earned the most conference victories since 2012-2013 — the program hasn’t yet reached elite status. The confidence and experience needed to execute down the stretch remains at this point, in Lawson’s words, “elusive” for the Blue Devils.
“It’s not something that’s easy to catch,” Lawson said. “That’s why not everybody can do it. And so, that’s what we’re chasing. And hopefully, we can keep chasing it and at some point this year we’ll win one of these games.”
This story was originally published December 3, 2023 at 3:23 PM.