Duke is still dancing. The seventh-seeded Blue Devils upset No. 2 seed Ohio State in Columbus by a score of 75-63 on Sunday, giving them their first Sweet 16 berth since 2018.
This was just the second loss Ohio State suffered on its home court all season.
Junior guard Reigan Richardson led Duke with 28 points while shooting over 60% from the field. She went 3-for-3 from beyond the arc and registered seven rebounds along with three steals.
PORTLAND BOUND pic.twitter.com/R8DZTGEPZg
— Duke Women’s Basketball (@DukeWBB) March 24, 2024
Ohio State was up by 16 points in the first half, but the Blue Devils stepped on the gas. Their comeback effort started in the second quarter, and they pulled away late in the fourth quarter to make the score look more lopsided than the game really was.
The Buckeyes were struggling to hold Duke back late in the game, and it didn't help that starting guard Celeste Taylor -- who's, coincidentally, a Duke transfer -- fouled out four minutes into the fourth quarter.
With 3:37 remaining in the game, the Blue Devils took over with a 7-0 run to make it 63-57 in their favor. They never looked back.
Ohio State sophomore Cotie McMahon scored a team-high 27 points, but that effort was not enough to take the Buckeyes to a third consecutive Sweet 16. Kevin McGuff's squad was a force to be reckoned with all season as the Buckeyes closely resembled the squad that made last year's Elite Eight.
It was hard to know what to except from Duke because its 2022-23 campaign was its best in recent history (26-7), but then the team lost Taylor, the ACC Defensive Player of the Year, to the Buckeyes.
Duke brought in five freshmen this season, and it turns out head coach Kara Lawson had everything under control in her fourth year at the helm of the program. The Blue Devils' defense remained strong and they entered the 2024 NCAA Women's Tournament with a 20-11 record after falling just four points short of upsetting NC State in the ACC Tournament quarterfinals.
Duke beat Richmond 72-61 in the first round, and now the Blue Devils are heading to Portland to take on the winner of UConn vs. Syracuse.
