Blue Devils Use Balanced Attack To Down Penn

PHILADELPHIA, Pa. – A total of 12 different Blue Devils scored on Sunday as the Duke women’s basketball team collected a 77-55 victory on the road at Penn in The Palestra in Philadelphia, Pa.

Duke (8-0) was led by freshman Shayeann Day-Wilson with a team-high 14 points, while Elizabeth Balogun added 13 points on the afternoon. Junior Celeste Taylor added eight points, nine rebounds, two assists, two steals, and one blocked shot in only 25 minutes.

The Blue Devils got off to a hot start in the first quarter, hitting 66.7 percent from the field to grab a 22-5 lead. The Duke defense was solid and held the Quakers without a field goal until the 4:30 mark, while the Blue Devil offense jumped out to an 8-0 advantage. Eight different Duke players scored in the period, led by Jade Williams and Lexi Gordon with four each.

Once again, Day-Wilson came off the bench on fire for the Blue Devils. The rookie hit her first three 3-point attempts as Duke went ahead, 38-15, with 2:49 remaining in the second quarter. The Blue Devils cooled off for the remainder of the period and went 1-of-8 from the field to close the quarter, while Penn went on a 10-2 run to cut the halftime lead to 40-25, in favor of Duke.

Day-Wilson paced the Blue Devils with nine points, while Taylor and senior Miela Goodchild added five each. Duke hit 50.0 percent from the field over the first 20 minutes.

Penn kept cutting into the Blue Devil lead in the third quarter and got the Duke advantage down to 11 a couple of times. The Blue Devils closed the third on a 13-1 run and limited Penn to 1-of-8 from the floor to hold a 59-36 lead heading into the final frame.

Duke closed strong in the fourth quarter and played several players off the bench on its way to securing the victory.

Day-Wilson, a native of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, continued her hot streak hitting 4-of-6 treys while dishing three assists and grabbing three rebounds in 25 minutes.

Penn (4-5) was led by Kayla Padilla with 16 points.