Keturah Jackson showed outstanding senior leadership with a near perfect afternoon - 13 points without a missed shot, 3 assists without a turnover. (DWHoops Photo by Orin Day)

Duke showed no signs of rust as they overwhelmed a game and energetic Hampton team, 72-37, in Cameron Indoor Stadium. On a beautiful day in Durham, about 4000 people made a huge amount of noise to create a vibrant atmosphere for college basketball, including a large number of alumni and boosters from Hampton. The tiny Lady Pirates led the game early at 8-5, but a 27-3 run bolstered by ferocious Duke defense put the game out of reach by the end of the first half. The Blue Devils were led by its guards, as Karima Christmas, Jasmine Thomas and Keturah Jackson all had 13 points apiece.

The Blue Devils dominated in all phases of the game: rebounding (+16), points off turnovers (+11), second chance points (+12) and shooting (46% to 26%). No Hampton player managed to reach double figures, despite their impressive and relentless hustle. Hampton may have been outmatched, but they were never intimidated by Duke and didn't back down. Duke won this game because they matched Hampton's energy while pressing all of their advantages. As a result, Duke reeled off a number of spectacular plays fueled by their hustle, quickness and athleticism. The key to the win, according to both Keturah Jackson and Jasmine Thomas, wasn't Duke's enthusiasm so much as it was calming down from their initial excitement to execute the plays as designed. No player was on the floor longer than 26 minutes for Duke, as the bench played 84 minutes and tallied 27 points, 22 rebounds and 5 blocks. On Monday night, the Devils will face an LSU team that impressed with their defense and balance in their dominant first-round win over Hartford.

Editor's Notes: We are pleased to welcome Debbie Leonard State Farm as our first DWHoops sponsor! They will be bringing you The Nutshell and some new site features next season. We are actively seeking additional sponsors and will post details on that soon.

Also, we have modified The Nutshell to incorporate the Team Box Scores (see below) eliminating that feature as a separate entity.

Duke Blue Devils Team Box Score

PTS FG FG % 3FG 3FG % FT FT% A O-D-REB BLK STL TO PF 1st 40 16-35 45.7 2-7 28.6 6-7 85.7 7 10-17-27 6 6 6 5 2nd 32 10-22 45.5 2-6 33.3 10-15 66.7 8 3-17-20 1 4 5 6 TOT 72 26-57 45.6 4-13 30.8 16-22 72.7 15 13-34-47 7 10 11 11

#15 Hampton Team Box Score PTS FG FG % 3FG 3FG % FT FT% A O-D-REB BLK STL TO PF 1st 14 6-26 23.1 0-2 0.0 2-6 33.3 1 5-10-15 1 3 10 8 2nd 23 9-30 30.0 4-13 30.8 1-2 50.0 3 5-11-16 3 3 6 12 TOT 37 15-56 26.8 4-15 26.7 3-8 37.5 4 10-21-31 4 6 16 20 Please support DWHoops with a site membership today! Click Here to Learn More