WBB: Duke 68, Penn 55

[aswewere]

Duke wins in a hard fought contest. Box http://www.espn.com/womens-college-basketball/boxscore?gameId=400911948

[burnspbesq]

Penn is pretty good, and we are far from a finished project, but there was plenty to like.

Interior, post-to-post passing is very nice. There is a very good understanding among Mathias, Chidom, and Belton.

I like Leonna Odom's game.

By December, we're going to be pretty good, and I think we will finish third or fourth in the ACC, vs. the preseason prediction of sixth.

[aswewere]

Duke wins in a hard fought contest. Box http://www.espn.com/womens-college-basketball/boxscore?gameId=400911948

Chronicle write up. http://www.dukechronicle.com/article/2016/11/brown-strong-defensive-effort-lead-duke-womens-basketball-past-penn

[jimsumner]

Penn returns all their key players from last season's 24-5 Ivy-League champions. They start two seniors and three juniors and have some upper-class reserves. Unlike most mid-majors, they have quality size, 6-3 junior Michelle Nwodeki and 6-3 senior Sydney Stipanovich (her uncle Steve had long NBA career). Both were first-team All-Ivy last season, with Stipanovich POY.

But Nwodecki was the more impressive, 24 points, 11 rebounds (3-6 on 3s). Duke did force her into six turnovers.

She would start at Duke and most other Power-Five schools. She's a future WNBA player.

Penn also plays a funky 2-3 zone, with some m2m principles and it's hard to figure out what they're doing.

In other words, this was a good win. Duke forced Penn into contested 3-pointers, got some turnovers in pressing situations and played well most of the game, with a few lapses of focus here and there.

The game got off to a weird start. Kyra Lambert hit a 3-pointer 18 seconds into the game, stole the subsequent in-bounds pass, scored, drew a foul and made the foul shot. She scored six points in three seconds. Duke led 13-0 after 2:08.

This is where Penn's experience paid off. They settled down and by-and-large forced Duke into a halfcourt slog in which Duke took lots of contested shots late in the possession.

Duke led 26-14 after one but scored 9, 15 and 18 points in the last three periods.

It was 35-23 at the half. After Penn cut it to 35-28, Duke called timeout and cut it inside for post layups in the next two possessions and gradually pulled away. The biggest lead was 19 at 60-41 and Duke withstood several runs after that.

Duke is a perimeter team this season and will go as far as Lexie Brown, Rebecca Greenwell and Lambert take them. The trio combined for 48 of Duke's 68 points, adding 15 rebounds, seven assists and three steals.

Brown is the kind of player Duke hasn't had for awhile, a super-quick point guard who can get to the rim at will. She had 20 points and clearly took over when Duke needed someone to take over.

But the post rotation is a committee. Senior Oderah Chidom had 14 rebounds, two steals and three blocks but she can still be moved around by stronger post players. And Duke's other bigs look like they may be relied on largely for rebounding and defense against good teams, an abundance of which show up on Duke's schedule.

The ACC is really good this season, national contenders at the top and NCAA-caliber teams in the middle. Third place is possible but ambitious, IMO. But sixth place would absolutely keep Duke playing into March.

[dudog84]

Penn returns all their key players from last season's 24-5 Ivy-League champions. They start two seniors and three juniors and have some upper-class reserves. Unlike most mid-majors, they have quality size, 6-3 junior Michelle Nwodeki and 6-3 senior Sydney Stipanovich (her uncle Steve had long NBA career). Both were first-team All-Ivy last season, with Stipanovich POY.

But Nwodecki was the more impressive, 24 points, 11 rebounds (3-6 on 3s). Duke did force her into six turnovers.

She would start at Duke and most other Power-Five schools. She's a future WNBA player.

Penn also plays a funky 2-3 zone, with some m2m principles and it's hard to figure out what they're doing.

In other words, this was a good win. Duke forced Penn into contested 3-pointers, got some turnovers in pressing situations and played well most of the game, with a few lapses of focus here and there.

The game got off to a weird start. Kyra Lambert hit a 3-pointer 18 seconds into the game, stole the subsequent in-bounds pass, scored, drew a foul and made the foul shot. She scored six points in three seconds. Duke led 13-0 after 2:08.

This is where Penn's experience paid off. They settled down and by-and-large forced Duke into a halfcourt slog in which Duke took lots of contested shots late in the possession.

Duke led 26-14 after one but scored 9, 15 and 18 points in the last three periods.

It was 35-23 at the half. After Penn cut it to 35-28, Duke called timeout and cut it inside for post layups in the next two possessions and gradually pulled away. The biggest lead was 19 at 60-41 and Duke withstood several runs after that.

Duke is a perimeter team this season and will go as far as Lexie Brown, Rebecca Greenwell and Lambert take them. The trio combined for 48 of Duke's 68 points, adding 15 rebounds, seven assists and three steals.

Brown is the kind of player Duke hasn't had for awhile, a super-quick point guard who can get to the rim at will. She had 20 points and clearly took over when Duke needed someone to take over.

But the post rotation is a committee. Senior Oderah Chidom had 14 rebounds, two steals and three blocks but she can still be moved around by stronger post players. And Duke's other bigs look like they may be relied on largely for rebounding and defense against good teams, an abundance of which show up on Duke's schedule.

The ACC is really good this season, national contenders at the top and NCAA-caliber teams in the middle. Third place is possible but ambitious, IMO. But sixth place would absolutely keep Duke playing into March.

Thanks for the insight. Doesn't look like dwhoops will be active this year, so this is much appreciated. For those interested, it looks like you'll be able to watch every game this year with ACC Network Extra. Yesterday the only audio was scores and fouls, next time I'll try to watch that and have live audio from another feed. Ain't technology wonderful?

[Kfanarmy]

...The ACC is really good this season, national contenders at the top and NCAA-caliber teams in the middle. Third place is possible but ambitious, IMO. But sixth place would absolutely keep Duke playing into March.

Those are some pretty low expectations for DWBB...times are a changing.

[jimsumner]

Those are some pretty low expectations for DWBB...times are a changing.

Hey, making the NCAAs after missing last season would be a step forward.

But yes, those top-five rankings seem like a long time ago.