Florida State (11-10, 5-6 ACC) at Duke (15-7, 6-6 ACC)
Thursday, Feb. 10 • 6:00 PM
Durham, N.C. • ACC Network Extra
Cameron Indoor Stadium (9,314)
Tickets: www.GoDuke.com (1-877-375-3853)
Live Stats: www.GoDuke.com
Radio: Blue Devil Sports Network (WDNC 620 AM, www.GoDuke.com, Varsity Network App)
Radio Talent: Chris Edwards (PXP)
TV/Video: ACC Network
TV Talent: Patrick Johnson (PXP), Debbie Taylor (Color)
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Setting the Scene...
Riding a two-game winning streak, the Duke women's basketball team (15-7, 6-6 ACC) continues its three-game homestand as the Blue Devils host Florida State (11-10, 5-6) on Thursday, Feb. 10 at 6 p.m.
The game will be carried live on ACC Network Extra with Patrick Johnson (PXP) and Debbie Taylor (Color) calling the action. It will also be aired on the Blue Devil Sports Network via the Varsity Network app and www.GoDuke.com with Chris Edwards (PXP) on the air at 5:45 p.m.
What is Next?...
Duke will close the homestand on Sunday, Feb. 13 at 2 p.m., by hosting N.C. State in Cameron. It will be aired live on RSN-TV. The contest will be the Blue Devils' annual Play4Kay contest and fans are encouraged to wear pink.
A Look at Florida State...
Florida State owns an 11-10 overall record and is coming off collecting one of its best wins of the season with a 70-65 victory over Notre Dame on Sunday.
The Seminoles have been led by Morgan Jones (14.8 points, 5.9 rebounds), Makayla Timpson (7.8 points) and Bianca Jackson (7.8 points).
The Series with Florida State...
Duke and Florida State will face off for the 52nd time in program history with the Blue Devils leading the series, 38-13.
Over the last seven meetings, only two have been played in Durham. Florida State has won five out of the last seven contests in the series.
In their last meeting, Duke won 66-64 on February 16, 2020 in Durham. The Blue Devils are 17-4 in Cameron Indoor Stadium.
Duke at Full Strength...
For the first time since returning from Christmas break, Duke was at full strength against Wake Forest on Feb. 6. The Blue Devils totaled an 81-76 victory.
The Blue Devils had gone 11 straight contests with at least one student-athlete or coach in each game due to either injury, suspension or health and safety protocols.
Duke head coach
Kara Lawson missed the UNC, Louisville and Georgia Tech contests due to health and safety protocols. She returned at Pitt to help snap a three-game losing streak.
With Duke's core team together, the Blue Devils have totaled an 11-1 record this season with the lone loss coming to top-ranked South Carolina. Duke has averaged 75.4 points and held opponents to 56.2 points in those contests.
Taylor Returns to the Court...
After missing seven games with an injury,
Celeste Taylor returned to the court and sparked the Blue Devils to a win at Pitt, snapping a three-game losing streak. Taylor has Duke on a two-game winning streak since returning.
In the seven games Taylor was out, the Blue Devils saw their offense struggle - hitting 41.5 percent from the field, 30.7 percent from downtown while averaging only 61.4 points. The Duke defense allowed 66.6 points in those games as well. In the first 13 games with Taylor, Duke hit 44.6 percent from the field, 33.3 percent from downtown and averaged 74.7 points. The Blue Devil defense was allowing only 59.4 points with Taylor as well.
Milestone Watch...
•
Shayeann Day-Wilson has moved into sixth on Duke's freshman three-pointers made (39) and sixth on the attempted lists (99). With her three games with 20+ points on the season, she ranks tied for 10th on Duke's freshman charts.
•
Miela Goodchild needs nine 3-pointers to move into a tie for eighth on Duke's all-time treys list with 170, which would tie
Haley Gorecki.
•
Jade Williams owns 108 career blocks and needs 23 rejections to move into a tie for 10th on Duke's all-time charts along with Mistie Bass (131).
Storylines/Other Blue Devil Notes...
• In four career games against Florida State,
Jade Williams has averaged 10.5 points, 4.8 rebounds and 2.3 assists. She has averaged 13.5 points, 3.5 rebounds and 3.0 assists over the last two games, including 17 points, four rebounds and two assists as a sophomore.
• The Blue Devils scored 20+ points in three-straight quarters (2nd, 3rd, 4th) against Wake Forest for the first time in ACC play and the first time since the Troy game in November.
• Duke snapped an eight-game streak without scoring 70+ points as the Blue Devils scored 81. The 81 points was also a season high against an ACC opponent.
• With
Celeste Taylor in the lineup, Duke has trailed at the end of the first quarter only five of the 15 games and lost only two of those (South Carolina and Virginia Tech). Without Taylor, the Blue Devils trailed at the end of the first quarter in five of the seven games and lost all five of those games.
• Against Louisville and Georgia Tech, Duke combined to dish out 16 assists. The Blue Devils bounced back at Pitt with the victory and dished 13 assists and then had 12 assists versus Wake Forest.
• The Blue Devils turned the ball over a season-low 11 times against Georgia Tech, but the Yellow Jackets had only four turnovers, which tied for the lowest in school history for a Duke opponent (NC State earlier this season).
• Senior
Jade Williams has hit 25-of-43 field goals for a 58.1 percentage since returning from Christmas break.
•
Miela Goodchild hit only 6-of-21 treys over the first nine games of the season, but has drained 29 the last 12 contests.
• Since
Elizabeth Balogun scored 22 and 27 points against Virginia Tech and Notre Dame, respectively, she has averaged only 6.3 points, hit 35.6 percent from the field and 19.0 percent from downtown.
•
Miela Goodchild is one of only five ACC players that have drained 27 or more 3-pointers in league action this season -- Dara Mabrey (Notre Dame), Jewel Spear (WFU), Georgia Amoore (VT) and Hailey Van Lith (Louisville).
• Senior
Onome Akinbode-James has pulled down five or more rebounds in each of the last 10 games.
• In ACC games only,
Miela Goodchild ranks third in 3-point field goal percentage (40.3), 20th in rebounding (5.7) and tied for first in 3-point field goals made (2.45).
Onome Akinbode-James ranks 15th in rebounding (6.2) and 10th in blocks (1.3).
Shayeann Day-Wilson ranks sixth in assists (3.6), 12th in free throw percentage (75.0) and 11th in scoring (13.4).
• In both losses to Virginia Tech, the Blue Devils were without key members of the team. In the first game, Duke was without
Shayeann Day-Wilson,
Imani Lewis and
Emma Schmidt. Then, Duke was without
Lexi Gordon and
Celeste Taylor in the second contest.
• Duke features six different Blue Devils that have led the squad in scoring at least one game --
Lexi Gordon (4),
Miela Goodchild (3),
Celeste Taylor (1),
Shayeann Day-Wilson (8),
Elizabeth Balogun (5) and
Onome Akinbode-James (1).
• The Blue Devils currently have four different players who have scored 20+ points in a game this season --
Celeste Taylor,
Lexi Gordon (2),
Elizabeth Balogun (2) and
Shayeann Day-Wilson (3).
• In the 25 games under
Kara Lawson since arriving, Duke has scored 70+ points in 15 of the 25 contests. The Blue Devils have won every game in which they have scored 70 points. The games at Miami and home versus Virginia marked the first wins without scoring 70+ points.
•
Elizabeth Balogun steps on the court in 2021-22 with Duke marking the third different ACC squad she has played for. She is the first women's basketball player in ACC history to play for three different teams in the league (Louisville, Georgia Tech).
• Blue Devil senior
Elizabeth Balogun represented her home country of Nigeria in the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. She appeared in all three contests for the Nigerians and played with former Duke standout Oderah Chidom with Nigeria.
• Duke features three graduate students in 2021-22 that are all attending the Duke Fuqua School of Business --
Amaya Finklea-Guity,
Jade Williams and
Lexi Gordon.
•
Kara Lawson's playing career has her in elite company as she is one of only three NCAA Division I women's basketball coaches to play in a NCAA Final Four, win an Olympic Gold Medal and win a WNBA Championship (Lindsay Whalen of Minnesota and Cynthia Cooper-Dyke of Texas Southern).
• Junior transfer
Jordyn Oliver will miss the 2021-22 season, after suffering an achilles injury over the summer.
• Follow @DukeWBB and @KaraLawson20 on Twitter to get the latest updates on Duke women's basketball. Also, "Like" Duke Women's Basketball on Facebook to get the latest videos, pictures and more. DWB is on Instagram at dukewbb, while
Kara Lawson is at KaraLawson.
Day-Wilson Earns Another ACC Honor...
For the third time this season, Duke rookie
Shayeann Day-Wilson was selected ACC Freshman of the Week, after averaging 16.3 points, 3.7 assists, 3.3 rebounds and 1.3 steals for the Blue Devils.
Day-Wilson helped lead the Blue Devils to a 2-1 league mark on the week, including back-to-back wins against Wake Forest and Pitt.
With Day-Wilson being honored three times this season, she became just the seventh Blue Devil to earn the honor three or more times – Elizabeth Williams (9), Alana Beard (7), Monique Currie (5), Azura Stevens (4), Alexis Jones (3), Wanisha Smith (3) and Payton Black (3).
On Sunday against Wake Forest, Day-Wilson had 22 points, five rebounds, two assists and one steal in a win against the Demon Deacons. The 5-5 point guard had only one turnover in 33 minutes of action, while hitting 7-of-14 field goals and 3-of-5 from downtown. Day-Wilson scored 11 points in the third quarter to help propel the Blue Devils to the win.
She opened the week with a team-high 17 points, three rebounds and three assists in a loss to 12th-ranked Georgia Tech, then followed with 10 points, six assists, two rebounds and three steals on the road at Pitt in 28 minutes.
For the week, Day-Wilson hit 7-of-14 from 3-point land and 8-of-11 from the free throw line.
Taylor Makes Impact in Return...
Celeste Taylor is one of the best all-around players in the nation, but the junior was injured at Syracuse and missed seven straight games. During that stretch, Duke went 2-5.
Taylor made her return at Pitt and collected seven points, six rebounds, one assist and hit her only 3-point attempt. She helped spark the Blue Devils to snap a three-game losing streak.
On the season, she is averaging 11.1 points, 5.9 rebounds, 2.0 steals and 2.5 assists on the year.
Earlier this season, Taylor collected a season-high 24 points to go along with 11 rebounds, six steals and six assists versus Troy. According to Her Hoop Stats, this was the first 24/11/6/6 performance in almost two years - and only the sixth such performance since 2009-10 nationally.
It marked the eighth time over her career she has notched 20+ points and the second time this season. Taylor has collected back-to-back double-doubles as a Blue Devil and six over her career.
Day-Wilson Heating Up Again...
Over the last four games, freshman
Shayeann Day-Wilson has been even more impressive averaging 18.5 points, 3.5 assists, 3.3 rebounds and 1.3 steals.
She has drained 52.9 percent from downtown and gone to the free throw line 21 times, hitting 17 of those.
Day-Wilson has collected double-digit scoring over the last 10 contests as well.
Scoring Slump Over...
Heading into the Wake Forest game, Duke had failed to reach the 70-point mark in eight-straight games. The Blue Devils broke out of the slump with 81 points against Wake Forest.
During the eight-game stretch, Duke had averaged 57.0 points, hit 39.4 percent from the field and 30.4 percent from 3-point land.
The Blue Devils drained 10 three-pointers and hit 48.2 percent from downtown in the Wake Forest contest.
Gordon Providing Scoring Lift...
After notching double-digit scoring twice over an 11-game stretch, graduate student
Lexi Gordon has scored double-digits in four consecutive games.
Gordon showed up in a big way against Wake Forest with a season-high 23 points as she sank 4-of-6 from downtown. She also hit 9-of-11 field goals.
Over the last four games, she has averaged 14.3 points and 4.0 rebounds. Gordon has hit 12-of-23 treys (52.2%) and 21-of-35 from the field (60.0%).
She has notched 20+ points in a game 14 times over her career.
With her next 3-pointer made, she will reach 40 for the season. It will mark her third straight season with 40 or more 3-pointers made.