No. 21 Duke Falls at Northwestern, 84-58

Sunday, November 11

Evanston, Ill.

2:00 PM

Duke University

0-1

Northwestern

2-0

Team	1	2	3	4	F
Duke	11	14	21	12	58
Northwestern	18	15	28	23	84

No. 21 Duke Falls at Northwestern, 84-58

11/11/2018 3:55:00 PM | Women's Basketball

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By: Duke Sports Information

EVANSTON, Ill. – The 21st-ranked Duke women's basketball team fell on the road at Northwestern, 84-58, Sunday afternoon in the 2018-19 season opener in Evanston, Ill.

Junior Leaonna Odom led the Blue Devils with her first double-double of the year and fifth of her career with 14 points and a career-high 14 boards in 25 minutes. Freshman Rayah Craig was right behind Odom with 13 points in 20 minutes of action in her Duke debut.

Northwestern got off to a hot start going ahead 5-0 as the Wildcats hit their first five shots of the contest. Trailing 8-2 less than two minutes into the game, the Blue Devils charged back to cut the lead to 8-7 as redshirt junior Haley Gorecki drained her first three-pointer of the season and rookie Onome Akinbode-James scored her first collegiate basket.

The Wildcats used a 7-2 run at the end of the first quarter to go ahead 18-11 heading into the second period.

After sophomore Jade Williams scored an early basket in the second period to cut the lead to seven, 20-13, Northwestern held Duke scoreless for over four minutes and the Wildcats led 24-13. Northwestern would go up by as many as 13, 28-15, with 3:46 remaining, but the Blue Devils closed with a 10-5 run to cut the lead to eight, 33-25, at the break.

At the half, Odom had nine rebounds and a team-high six points on 3-of-6 field goals. The Blue Devils hit 38.5 percent from the field in the first half as a team.

Northwestern went ahead by 20 in the third quarter, but the Blue Devils didn't give up and was able to cut the lead to 64-54 with 5:56 remaining. This was spearheaded by Craig's six straight points in the fourth quarter. After a Northwestern timeout, the Wildcats outscored the Blue Devils 18-0 and held Duke without a basket for over five minutes.

The Blue Devils had difficulty controlling the ball with 24 team turnovers to set up 15 Wildcats' points.

As a team, Duke shot just 18.8 percent (3-of-16) from beyond the arc to Northwestern's 40.0 percent (8-of-20).

The 26-point loss was the worst season-opening defeat since 1999 when the Blue Devils fell, 104-74, to third-ranked Connecticut.

Duke will remain on the road as the Blue Devils will next travel to Bangor, Maine to face the Black Bears of Maine Thursday, Nov. 15 at 7 p.m.

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