Duke women roll past College of Charleston in NCAA Tournament opener
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Duke used interior size and defense to build a dominant lead and control tempo.
- Toby Fournier led scoring with 24 points on 11-of-18 shooting.
- Defense forced turnovers, cut passing lanes and created transition opportunities.
Duke’s women’s basketball team took notes Thursday as their schoolmates on the top-ranked men’s team struggled in their first-round matchup against Siena.
The men’s players admitted Thursday they underestimated the Saints going into their NCAA Tournament opener. The team thought the game would be “handed to us,” Cameron Boozer said, while Maliq Brown said it expected “a cakewalk.”
The third-seeded Duke women made certain that wasn’t going to happen to them Friday, opening their NCAA Tournament run with a dominant 81-64 win over No. 14 College of Charleston at Cameron Indoor Stadium. Duke will next face the winner of the Baylor-Nebraska game on Sunday.
“We’re gonna support them no matter what … but I think it’s important,” Duke All-America forward Toby Fournier said. “Watching them, we can learn from them and apply that to our game.”
The Blue Devils used their interior size to control the game on both ends of the floor, with forwards Delaney Thomas and Fournier dominating the paint. Fournier made the team’s first four field goals, scoring nine points in the first three minutes of play.
The Cougars used a 7-0 run midway through the first quarter and took a one-point lead, but the Devils outscored the visitors 14-2 down the stretch.
At halftime, Fournier and Thomas combined for 26 of the team’s 45 points — they matched Charleston’s first-half total — while shooting 64.7% from the field and pulling down 10 rebounds. As a team, the Blue Devils scored 24 points in the paint and blocked five shots.
They were bigger, faster, stronger and capitalized on those traits with ease.
Duke’s success in the lane continued into the second half. Fournier scored the team’s first three buckets and put her team up 25 points two minutes into the third quarter. At the time, it was the largest lead of the day. Duke led by as many as 28 points at the end of the third.
Fournier, an All-American, led the team with 24 points on 11 of 18 shooting in 24 minutes played. Jordan Wood finished with 17 points on a perfect shooting day, including 5 of 5 from the perimeter. Thomas added 19 points and was one rebound shy of a double-double.
“I think we try to find the hot hand. We try to find where our advantage is throughout the game,” Thomas said. “We just did that, and they were able to find us inside, which was good, and opened up the outside.”
Thomas also called Wood a “spark plug” who doesn’t get as much recognition for her efforts but contributes when it matters.
“She just works every day, and her steadiness and her commitment to her work has really helped this team, especially down the stretch in the bigger game,” Thomas added. “We really needed her.”
Charleston’s Taryn Barbot led all-scorers with 36 points, 24 of which came in the second half.
Ashlon Jackson and Taina Mair were limited in scoring, but dished out 17 of the team’s 20 assists.
The Blue Devils shot 49.2% from the field and outscored the Cougars in four different specialty scoring metrics, including a 44-20 advantage in the paint.
The offensive numbers certainly pop off the box score, but Duke can credit its defense for creating scoring opportunities.
The Blue Devils were aggressive and physical. Their ball pressure helped shut down passing lanes — Charleston finished with six assists — and forced nine non-steal turnovers, while players contested virtually every basket.
Duke’s defensive intensity also allowed the team to get out and run, where its speed paid off — both in the halfcourt and in transition.
Charleston missed 13 straight shots in the second quarter and missed its first 11 in the third. From 8:59 remaining in the second through the 5:45 mark of the third, the Cougars went 1 of 25.
Charleston finally found an offensive rhythm in the fourth quarter and outscored Duke, 23-15, but the push came too late.
Duke head coach Kara Lawason said that was intentional. She knew her team was winning and in a good position, so she pulled most of the starters.
“Even if the margin was shrinking, I just made a decision, our job is to survive and advance. It’s not to get a big win for the NET anymore. That doesn’t matter anymore,” Lawson said. “I made the decision to kind of take the foot off the gas with about 7, 8 minutes left … because I knew we had another game on Sunday.”
If there were any blemishes, the Blue Devils got sloppy in the third quarter by committing nine fouls and turning the ball over five times. College of Charleston went 9 of 11 from the line, but Duke’s lead was substantial enough to weather those mistakes.
Four Blue Devils finished with at least three foul calls, and Duke coughed up the ball 20 times. Charleston scored 22 points off turnovers and 22 at the line.
Additionally, Duke’s rebounding effort didn’t always meet its personal standard. In fact, the team gave up 19 offensive rebounds for 12 second-chance points. The Cougars, however, shot 26.1% and helped the Blue Devils maintain a double-digit lead for most of the day.
“I think we definitely held our own. When you play a team like Duke — who is very good, and don’t be surprised if you don’t see them in the Final Four — we could have gotten beat by 60,” said Charleston coach Robin Harmony. “We kind of hung in there just long enough. Again, hit shots, and we’d have been still back in that ball game a little bit more. We’ll take that. We’ll learn from it and keep it moving.”
This story was originally published March 20, 2026 at 1:49 PM.
