Lady Blue Devils Advance, Lose Lambert in Blowout Victory

Second-seeded Duke would use a 26-0 run in the second quarter to run away from 15th-seeded Hampton as the Lady Blue Devils cruise to a 94-31 victory.

Hampton would open the scoring with a Jephany Brown three to give the Lady Pirates a three point lead. The team that is the second-seed in the Bridgeport Region would respond with a Lexie Brown layup followed by a Leaonna Odom layup to give Duke the first lead of the night 4-3.

The Lady Pirates would tie the game at four after HU’s Brown only made one of her two free throw attempts. Rebecca Greenwell would hit a three on the ensuing possession to give Duke the 7-4 lead. Greenwell would get a fast break layup to make it 9-4 Duke.

Hampton would make it 9-6 on the efforts of Jephany Brown, but Duke would respond with a quick 8-2 run to end the quarter. Duke forward Erin Mathias hit a long contested two-pointer at the buzzer to extend the lead to 17-8.

Duke came out on a 26-0 run in the second quarter to go in to halftime with a 48-10 advantage that Hampton could not overcome. The Lady Pirates did not score in the last 8:35 of the half after being held to 0 of 12 to go in to halftime.

Duke guard Kyra Lambert went down with apparent knee injury with 4:21 remaining in the second quarter. She did not end up returning to the game. Coach Joanne P. McCallie could not mention details yet, but emphasized that Lambert will be out for a while. “Kyra [Lambert] is out for a long time.” She continued “I don’t think you can step up, I think you have to evolve.”

Lexie Brown was held to only four points in the first half with the Lady Pirates pressing up on her tightly. Greenwell leads all scorers with 16 points. Leaonna Odom had a strong first half with 13 points and six rebounds.

The Lady Pirates would only manage seven points in the third quarter as Duke would use a 17-2 run to extend the Duke lead 76-17.

The fourth quarter would be no different, as the Lady Blue Devils prevail 94-31

Rebecca Greenwell would finish with 26 points and 10 rebounds, her fifth double-double of the year and 12th of her career.

Odom had a very strong performance as she finished with 23 points on 8-of-9 shooting effort and six rebounds. Eighth Duke Freshman to score twenty points or more in a NCAA tournament game.

Lexie Brown was held to only 11 points for the night but wanted to be more of a facilitator and it showed. “This is just one of the type of games where I had to be more of a faciliator. They play that frenzy type of defense and I took it upon myself to be that person to make sure that we did not play that frenzy offense that they thrive on.”

For Hampton, they finish the night shooting 18 percent on 12-66 field goals made. Jephany Brown would lead the Lady Pirates with 18 points and two steals.

Coach Joanne P. McCallie’s squad will have Sunday off to prepare for Monday night’s match-up against the tenth-seed Oregon at 7 pm.