Duke coach Kara Lawson’s No. 7 Blue Devils were beaten 58-52 by the No. 16 Baylor Lady Bears in their season-opening game on Monday. The game, which was played in France, was an epic ranked matchup dominated by coach Nicki Collen’s Lady Bears.
Sophomore forward Toby Fournier was the only Blue Devils player to tally double digits in points (16) and rebounds (10) in a low offensive showing by Lawson’s team.
Kara Lawson Details Fixes to Team After Baylor Loss
The Blue Devils opened up a 7-0 lead to start the game and held a 33-29 lead at halftime, but still allowed the Bears back into the game. During her postgame news conference, Lawson detailed the urgency of fixing the issues that plagued her team during their season-opening loss.
“I think you can learn a lot in the first game of the season, especially when you’re playing a really good team,” Lawson said. “They expose a lot on both sides of the floor, offensively and defensively. We have individual players who learned a lot and are going to learn a lot when they see it on film. And as a team, we’re gonna learn and grow from it.
“We would’ve still learned a lot if we won, but if you lose, teams tend to be a bit more urgent to fixing things because they wanna change the result. So, this will sting for a little bit because we don’t play for six days and that might be the best thing for us. It sits with us, we get back to work and try and get better.”
Lawson, who took over the USA Women’s Basketball team’s reins in September, is attempting to repeat as ACC Tournament champions with the Blue Devils this season.
During her postgame news conference, Baylor star Taliah Scott, who dropped 24 points in the win against Lawson’s Duke, detailed how the Bears beat the Blue Devils despite trailing at halftime.
“I think we just came out more aggressive. Right? We knew it was going to be a tough game,” Scott said. “We knew that Duke was going to come out physical, especially at the start of the fourth quarter. Right. It’s the last quarter. Everybody’s trying to win. And so we came out. We matched their physicality. We were executing our offense and we just got good stuff.”
The Blue Devils will host the Holy Cross Crusaders at the Cameron Indoor Stadium on Sunday as they attempt to get back on track.