Duke shakes off slow start, beats Wake Forest 69-46

By Louis Fernandez, WRAL Sports

After trailing Wake Forest 19-6 at the end of the first quarter, Duke women's basketball outscored the Demon Deacons by 36 points in the rest of the game, winning 69-46. The Blue Devils are now 15-7 this season, 7-4 in ACC play.

"I just thought we were a little stunned by how they were playing and certainly they did a great job of imposing their will on the game, in particular in that first quarter," head coach Kara Lawson said.

Duke had 13 turnovers in the first half, including nine in the second quarter. Wake Forest shot well from the outside early on too, hitting all six of its threes in the first half.

"I just think we're a completely different team when we're all fully locked-in and aggressive on the defensive end. Defense is really something that we let define us and in that first half, that was not us," freshman Oluchi Okananwa said.

One of the biggest parts of their defense, senior center Kennedy Brown, was on the court for only 16:13 on Thursday night, picking up two fouls early in the first quarter and sitting for the rest of the first half.

"It's such a plus to really have her on the court, so of course when she went out quick with those first two fouls it was kind of like, man, this isn't what we wanted," Okananwa said.

"She's our defensive anchors, she's one of the best defenders in the country," Lawson said.

Okananwa helped lead the way with 16 points for Duke, but Taina Mair had the most points on the night with 17. Duke shot 64% from the field in the second half.

"We've been down double digits a lot, I wish it was less, I wish we didn't do that to ourselves, but we're playing good teams, it's going to happen. They just have this ability to not let that impact whether they think they can come back or not, and I love that about them, they've consistently done that through the year," Lawson said.

Next up for Duke, the team will host rival North Carolina on Sunday February 11 at 2 p.m. Earlier this month, the team announced the game was sold out.