No. 21 Duke Set for Matchup at Pittsburgh Saturday

The Opening Tip

Duke aims to make it 11 straight wins Sunday when the Blue Devils travel to Pittsburgh for a 2 p.m., tipoff on ACC Network. The Blue Devils, climbing back into the AP poll at No. 21, are 13-6 overall and 8-0 in league action with their last loss coming Dec. 4 against LSU. The 8-0 start in ACC play is Duke's best under head coach Kara Lawson. The last time a Duke team won more than six conference games to start was in 2012-13 - going 15-0 en route to a 17-1 conference record. The longest win streak for Duke under Lawson is 11 games - Nov. 27, 2022 - Jan. 18, 2023.
Duke's six losses are against the current NET No. 5 LSU, No. 2 UCLA, No. 4 South Carolina, No. 22 West Virginia, No. 24 Baylor and No. 74 South Florida. The Blue Devils are led on offense by sophomore Toby Fournier's 17.6 points per game. Taina Mair is having a career year, averaging 11.3 points, 5.2 assists and 5.4 rebounds per game. Ashlon Jackson is playing both ends of the court at an elite level, dropping 12.7 points per game, a team-best 40 three-pointers and 4.4 assists per game, while drawing the toughest defensive matchup for Duke's elite defense. Fournier, Delaney Thomas and Arianna Roberson lead the charge on the glass, averaging 7.5 and 5.6 rebounds per game, respectively. Thomas also contributes 10.5 points per game on a team-high 62 percent shooting, while Roberson adds 8.3 points, 5.5 boards and 1.1 blocks per game. Fournier is the top rim protector, averaging 2.3 blocks per game.
Pittsburgh is 8-13 overall and 1-7 in ACC play. Mikayla Johnson and Theresa Hagans Jr. pace the Panthers offensively with 12.2 and 10.7 points per game, respectively. Fatima Diakhate leading the charge on the glass with a 9.1 per game average. The Panthers shoot 38 percent for the year, but are letting opponents hit 39 percent of their shots.
Duke and Pittsburgh meet for the 17th time overall and for just the seventh time in Pittsburgh. The Blue Devils are unbeaten against the Panthers and own an average margin of victory of 19 points.

Duke in the Past Month

Duke has been impressive in the 10-game win streak as they inch closer to 15 wins. Duke is averaging 79.9 points per game, has a +23.9 scoring margin and has shot 46.2 percent. On the glass, Duke sports a +8.7 rebounding margin.
Defensively, the Blue Devils are holding opponents to just 56 points per game, 37 percent shooting and forcing 17.2 turnovers per game.

What the Analytics Say About Duke

Duke has made great strides in the past month. The analytics say the Blue Devils are excelling. According to HerHoopStats, Duke is eighth in defensive rating at 72.5.
Offensively, HerHoopStats has Duke ranked 22nd of 363 teams with a 112.0 offensive rating. The Blue Devils average 101.7 points per 100 possessions overall this season.
The Blue Devils lead the nation in opponent average win percentage with Duke's foes winning 66.0 of their games this season. The simple RPI by HHS has Duke at No. 12.
Individually, Delaney Thomas tops the list as one of Duke's most efficient players, averaging 1.31 points per possession, holding an efficiency rating of 62.3 and a player offensive rating of 126.7 [points produced by a player per 100 possessions]. Toby Fournier is right behind her at 1.11 PPP, 55.6 efficiency and offensive rating of 110.1.

Ashlon Jackson Finds Ways to Impact the Game

Ashlon Jackson, often drawing the opponents' top perimeter defender, might not be shooting as well as she'd like (37% overall and 33% from three), but she continues to have an incredible impact in other ways. The senior captain has doubled her assist production from last season and is averaging 5.4 per game over the past 10 games.
Defensively, she has increased her rebounding average from last season by 54 percent and has six five-plus rebound games, including her first double-digit performance.
Jackson got off to a slow start from long range, going 12-of-44 (27.2%) in the first seven games. She has gotten into a better rhythm, knocking down 28-of-78 (35.9%) in the past 12 and 16-of-41 (39.0%) in the nine league games.
With 202 trifectas for her career, she is tied for fourth all-time in threes in Duke lore. Her 578 attempts are fourth.

Mair Does It All

Mair has done it all this season for the Blue Devils. She has scored double-digits in nine of the 18 games, collected at least five rebounds in 12 contests, including 10 at Cal, and picked up three-plus steals eight times. The Boston native's 41 steals are seventh in the ACC. Mair has led Duke in points five times, rebounds four times, assists in 12 games and steals seven times.
With 19 points and three assists at South Florida, Mair became the fifth player to reach 1,000 career points and 500 career assists while wearing a Blue Devil uniform. She is the sixth to hit 500 assists. Needing one rebound to reach 500, Mair would be just the third Duke player to finish her collegiate career at Duke with those three milestones.
Mair currently is the lone guard in the ACC to have 1,000 points and 500 assists and ranks sixth among active players with 573 assists. She is on pace to become the sixth active player in Division I women's basketball to have the 1,000, 500, 500.

Up Next

The Blue Devils make a trip south to Miami for a Jan. 29 matchup with the Hurricanes.

To stay up to date with Blue Devils women's basketball, follow the team on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook by searching "DukeWBB".

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No. 21 Duke Set for Matchup at Pittsburgh Saturday

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Toby Fournier

Ashlon Jackson

Taina Mair

Arianna Roberson

Delaney Thomas

Duke information

No. 21 Duke Set for Matchup at Pittsburgh Saturday

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Next Event

Players Mentioned

Toby Fournier

Ashlon Jackson

Taina Mair

Arianna Roberson

Delaney Thomas

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Duke information