Krystal Thomas

Another excellent effort by Krystal, who is really starting to put it all together. She's making quicker decisions once she gets the ball, either to go up right away or else pass it out. She got an assist to Jasmine by swinging the ball over when Clemson came to double-team her. Her teammates are figuring out the best places to get her the ball, and they're doing a better job at not aiming it above her or at her feet. Even when she couldn't finish, she scored by sinking 5 of 6 from the foul line. She anchored Duke's rebounding effort by getting 11 boards, and she forced a bad miss by partially blocking a shot. She held Clemson center Shaniqua Pauldo to no points on 0-4 shooting. Krystal will be perhaps the key player when Duke battles UConn on Monday.

Kathleen Scheer

After her herculean defensive effort against NC State, Leener moved back into the starting lineup, in place of Peters. She hit a three to end the half and also hit a bank shot. She otherwise was concentrating on defense and all-out hustle. She blocked a shot and recovered it (a burgeoning skill of hers), forced a held ball and chased down a turnover. She also was solid on the boards. This wasn't a game where she lost her starting job, nor was it one where she solidified it, either. I expect her to start against UConn because it will be important to have veterans start in that particular crucible.

Karima Christmas

Rima seems to be trying to shoot her way out of her long scoring slump, but it hasn't quite worked yet. She bricked all of her threes, but did score on a stickback and a long jumper that was almost at the three point line. She did her usual bang-up job on the boards, attacking at both ends. A decent showing, but not close to what she's capable of.

Jasmine Thomas

Jasmine's intensity level was at about a six (out of ten) in this game, as opposed to the periods where she turns it up all the way to ten (or like the Xavier game, where it went up to eleven on the game's final play). She was aggressive to start the game, scoring on a drive, hitting a three, finding Gray in transition and getting assists to Christmas, K.Thomas and Selby. It was important for Jasmine to have the ball in her hands even if she wasn't shooting, because opponents had to know that she was here to dominate. Later, she hit a couple of foul shots, sank a baseline runner, and hit another three. Other than a steal and layup, she was mostly quiet in the second half, letting others do the heavy lifting. The main negative from her performance was an occasional casualness in handling the ball; it slipped out a couple of times when she wasn't paying attention and she threw a couple of bad passes that got picked off.

Chelsea Gray

One could sense that seeing the floor free of obstructions was making Chelsea's mouth water in anticipation. Indeed, she blew a couple of easy layups in the second half because she was just a little too excited. The same was true of some particularly high-difficulty passes she tried to thread into the post. None of that mattered much because her performance was so impressive otherwise. She wisely found Krystal from the wing very early in the game. She later finished a fast break triggered by a steal. Later in the first half, found Peters for a short jumper (helping jump-start her teammate's confidence), hit a three on a pass from Liston (after the two had traded the ball back and forth, looking for the best shot), scored on a drive and hit a beautiful pull-up three. She found K.Thomas for another shot around the basket in the second half and also set up Wells for a three. Just another typically solid game for Chelsea Gray.