Upcoming Event: Women's Basketball at Stanford on January 11, 2026 at 5 p.m.
/
5 p.m.
Women's Basketball
at Stanford
Sunday, January 4
Durham, N.C.
12 p.m.
Duke University
vs
Notre Dame
Photo by: Duke Athletics
Duke Welcomes No. 18 Notre Dame for Sunday Matinee
1/3/2026 10:28:00 AM | Women's Basketball
The Opening Tip
Numbers Behind the Win Streak
Individual Numbers Inside the Win Streak
#GoDuke
- Duke puts its five-game win streak to the test Sunday, Jan. 4 against No. 16 Notre Dame. The Blue Devils are 8-6 overall, 3-0 in league action with their last loss coming Dec. 4 against LSU . Each of the past five wins have come by at least 15 points with the average margin of victory being 32 points.
- Duke's six losses are against the current NET No. 5 LSU, No. 4 UCLA, No. 2 South Carolina, No. 18 West Virginia, No. 34 Baylor and No. 80 South Florida. The Blue Devils are led on offense by sophomore Toby Fournier's 17.5 points per game. Ashlon Jackson is dropping 12.1 points per game and Taina Mair follows with an average of 11.8 to round out the double-digit scorers. Fournier and Delaney Thomas lead the charge on the glass, averaging 7.4 and 5.9 rebounds per game, respectively. Fournier is the top rim protector, averaging 2.4 blocks per game, while Jordan Wood is at 1.3 per game. Mair is the floor general, dishing 5.1 assists to 2.6 turnovers per game.
- Notre Dame comes to Durham following a tough overtime loss at Georgia Tech Thursday. The 18th-ranked Fighting Irish are 10-3 overall and 2-1 in the ACC. Hannah Hidalgo and Cassandre Prosper are their scorers, averaging 25.5 and 16.5 points per game, respectively. Hidalgo is also pulling down 6.1 rebounds per game and averages 6.1 steals per game while shooting 49 percent from the floor. Prosper is hitting 55 percent from the field and leads all rebounders at 7.1 per game. The Irish average 86.2 points per game and force 23.5 turnovers per game.
- Duke looks to pick up its first ranked win of the year Sunday. The Blue Devils are 5-19 all-time against Notre Dame but own the most recent win - 61-56 in the 2025 ACC Championship Semifinal. The Irish are 5-3 inside Cameron Indoor Stadium overall and 2-3 against a Kara Lawson coached Duke squad. Of the past five meetings between the schools, three have been decided by five or fewer points and four of the five by single digits.
Numbers Behind the Win Streak
- The Blue Devils have won five straight as they inch closer to 10 wins. Duke is averaging 82.8 points per game, has a +32.0 scoring margin and has shot 47.5 percent in the five-game stretch. On the glass, Duke sports a +14.6 rebounding margin, compared to just +8.0 in November non-conference games against unranked opponents.
- Defensively, the Blue Devils are holding opponents to just 50.8 points per game, 32.6 percent shooting and only 21 percent from distance.
Individual Numbers Inside the Win Streak
- Toby Fournier has shined for the Blue Devils during the four-game win streak, averaging 21.0 points and 9.8 rebounds per game. She has done well to stay out of foul trouble, committing just seven fouls, while blocking 13 shots in that span.
- Overall, Duke has four players averaging double digits over the four games. Three players are averaging at least three assists per game during the win streak, including Riley Nelson who has upped her assist average from 1.6 to 3.6. Ashlon Jackson is dropping 5.4 dimes per game compared to 3.6 in the unranked November contests.
- Duke and Notre Dame are meeting for the 25th time overall. The Fighting Irish hold a commanding 19-5 advantage in the series, but the Blue Devils own the most recent win at the 2025 ACC Championship semifinal. Duke is 3-2 against the Irish under head coach Kara Lawson and four of the five matchups have been decided by single digits.
- Coming off its first ACC loss and the first setback since Dec. 4, the Irish are 10-3 overall and 2-1 in league action. Notre Dame is 2-2 on the road and is 1-2 against Q1 teams in the NET rankings. Hannah Hidalgo is the undisputed leader on both ends of the court, leading the country with 6.08 steals per game and ranking second nationally with 25.5 points per game. She has scored at least 20 points in 10 of the 13 games and is credited with five-plus steals in seven outings. Former Blue Devil Vanessa de Jesus averages 10.7 points and 4.3 assists in 33 minutes per game. Cassandre Prosper is contributing 16.5 points per game and is the team's top rebounder at 7.1 per outing. The Fighting Irish average 86.2 points per game and are shooting 48 percent for the year to rank 14th in the country.
- Mair has done it all this season for the Blue Devils. She has scored double-digits in eight of the 14 games, collected at least five rebounds in nine contests and picked up three-plus steals six times. The Boston native's 32 steals are seventh in the ACC. Mair has led Duke in points four times, rebounds three times, assists in eight games and steals five 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 33 rebounds to surpass 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 fifth among active players with 542 assists. She is on pace to become the fifth active player in Division I women's basketball to have the 1,000, 500, 500 trifecta.
- Redshirt sophomore Riley Nelson saw her first action as a Blue Devil against Baylor in Paris. It was the first game for the Clarksburg, Maryland, native in 659 days, dating back to Jan. 14, 2024, in a Maryland uniform.
- Nelson is starting to figure out the Duke offense, distributing 18 assists during the five-game win streak, 58 percent of her total of 31 this season. In the past five games, Nelson is averaging 13.2 points, 4.4 rebounds and 3.6 assists per game with four double-digit outings, including a career-high 20 points against Boston College.
- The Blue Devils head to the West Coast for matchups at Cal and Stanford the following week. Duke takes on the Golden Bears Jan. 8 at 6 p.m. (ET) and the Cardinal Jan. 11 at 5 p.m. (ET).
#GoDuke
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