DURHAM, N.C. (AP) — Toby Fournier scored 24 points on 11-of-18 shooting and Duke maintained its momentum by opening the first round of March Madness with an 81-64 victory over the College of Charleston on Friday.
Jordan Wood had 17 points on 5-of-5 shooting from 3-point range and Delaney Thomas had 19 points and nine rebounds for the third-seeded Blue Devils (25-8), who are hosting the first and second rounds of the women's NCAA Tournament for the second consecutive
year at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
Since a 3-6 start, Duke is on a 22-2 run that includes their second ACC Tournament championship in a row.
But coach Kara Lawson still was frustrated, becoming animated with her players during a four-quarter timeout despite a comfortable margin. She noted that 20 Duke turnovers led to 22 points by Charleston, which also scored 12 second-chance points and made 22 free throws.
“Those are areas that we need those numbers to come down,” Lawson said. “I wake up intense. I’m always at the next level. There’s an urgency about me. It’s March. You want to win. You want to play well. No matter what the score is, there’s a standard by which we play. If we don’t play that, then it’s my job to get them to that level.”
Fournier, a 6-2 sophomore forward who was a third-team All America selection, was a force inside on offense and defense. During one second-quarter sequence, she sandwiched a nifty reverse lay-in and fast-break layup around a block of Tyja Beans.
“Getting a good defensive stop really helps me on offense as well, and that kind of happened in the whole game,” Fournier said. “This was a post-up game. They had a lot of smaller players, and I was able to use that to my advantage.”
Charleston (27-6) was unable to overcome a 26% shooting performance in its first women's NCAA Tournament appearance. Junior guard Taryn Barbot led the 14th-seeded Cougars with 36 points (the most scored against Duke this season) and made 14 of 16 free throws. Twin sister Taylor Barbot had 13 points, and Beans chipped in 11 points.
“We battled,” Charleston coach Robin Harmony said. “Our kids never quit. We didn’t get blown out of the gym. We worked and kind of held our own. Really proud of our team for showing up and really pushing.”
Harmony said she would be unsurprised if Duke made the Final Four after reaching the Elite Eight last season. But does Lawson, who said Thursday her team “isn’t perfect,” think the Blue Devils can fix their weaknesses in time to go a round further this year?
“It’s not like a broken light bulb where you can just go to Home Depot and get it and twist it in,” Lawson said. “It’s a gradual growth toward having a higher percentage of adherence to the scheme. We’re going to have mess-ups, right? We want to lower the amount of them. Even if we play great, we still might have 12 turnovers.
“So it’s really about shrinking those numbers down. We want to have as few as possible, but these teams are good, so you’re going to have some. So it’s not having zero tolerance for mistakes but having a low tolerance.”
Despite Taryn Barbot turning in a big performance on a national stage, Harmony remains unworried about a powerhouse team poaching her star player. The Barbot sisters stayed at Charleston despite contact from more than 80 teams about transfer offers after last season, according to Harmony.
“She’s 20 and is going to make her own decisions,” Harmony said. “She’s an adult. It’s whatever is best for her. So I’m not even thinking about that. There’s no doubt that she is a Power 4 player, and this is where she’s happy. And that’s the important part is the kid’s happy with where she’s playing. If she’s not, then she has to change."
Duke will play the winner of Friday afternoon’s game between sixth-seeded Baylor and 11th-seeded Nebraska.
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AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-womens-bracket and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness
