Krystal Thomas

After a forgettable first half at both ends, Krystal proved she was ready to help her team survive and advance. She scored four minutes into the half by finishing a pass from J.Thomas. She had a stickback to draw Duke within 2 after finding Jasmine for a three. She had back-to-back baskets to make it 57-54 after Duke fell behind by 7 points. Most importantly, the 56% free throw shooter knocked down two pressure packed foul shots with 28 seconds left to give Duke a two possession lead.

Allison Vernerey

Alli really struggled in this game. She pushed all of her shots a little too hard, missed the front end of a one-and-one and then missed both halves of an intentional foul. Those latter 2 shots could have salted the game away a little early. There was no lack of effort on her part; indeed, she was trying just a bit too hard. I was baffled as to why she was even on the floor at a time when Marist was going to foul Duke's worst free throw shooter, especially given that she had played so few minutes up to that point. I'm guessing it was a defensive move (since Alli had had some success at closing out on shooters), but it would have made more sense to go small in that scenario with great foul shooters. That would have been the right time to bring in Scheer, for example.

Karima Christmas

Karima scored Duke's first points of the game and 4 of their first 9 thanks to a couple of free throws and a spinning layup. Then she picked up her second foul and sat on the bench for the rest of the first half. She began the second half by finishing a lob and broke a Duke drought by getting a stickback on Duke's 4th crack at the basket. Her final basket of the game was a steal & layup that cut Marist's lead to 53-50. That didn't mean she stopped contributing in this game, however. She had a dish to K.Thomas for a score, blocked a shot and came up with 4 more rebounds and 2 more steals. She was at the top of Duke's matchup zone, and it was her mobility, strength and size that made it so effective in the second half. Marist had to go around and behind her to score as their penetration was neutralized.

Jasmine Thomas

Jasmine struggled to finish shots for most of the game but managed to play through it. Marist's strategy was to force Duke to finish layups rather than foul, and it was a wise move. When Jasmine missed a layup and her own stickback attempt, it was clear that this was going to be one of those games. She did quickly bounce back to drop in a three point bomb but was silent for another ten minutes. She exploded once again with a drive, a steal & runout and a driving floater to pull Duke within 23-19. She scored the last of her 12 first half points with another three that made it 25-22. Jaz became more of a distributor in the second half as she found Christmas and K.Thomas inside for baskets. That said, she hit another big three to cut the lead to 43-39 and scored a big bucket in transition to push Duke's lead up to 63-60 and fire up the crowd. In some ways, her most important moment as a leader came when she yelled at Chelsea Gray to shoot an open three. Gray sank that shot and promptly went on to carry the team to victory down the stretch. This was very much a passing of the torch moment, a transition that one hopes will continue in Philadelphia.

Shay Selby

Shay had a quietly solid game. She scored early on a pretty spin move and then early in the second half in transition. She missed her jump shots as well as the front end of a one-and-one at the end of the first half. However, she came up with a key offensive rebound and assist to Scheer to break a long Duke scoring drought at the end of the half.