No. 14 Duke women rally behind Stevens to beat Penn 57-50
PHILADELPHIA (AP) Azura Stevens scored seven of her 15 points in the fourth quarter to help No. 14 Duke rally to beat Penn 57-50 on Friday night.
Trailing 45-39 early in the fourth, Stevens started a 14-0 run with a layup. After Oderah Chidom's layup gave Duke a 46-45 lead with 5:27 left, Stevens swished a 3-pointer from 30 feet just before the shot clock expired to make it a four-point game. Stevens then added another layup with 2:44 left to make it 51-45.
Penn finally ended its 6-minute drought with a 3-pointer by Lauren Whitlatch with 38.6 seconds left, but it was too late to mount a comeback.
It was the second straight year Penn opened up against a Top 25 team. Last season, the Quakers lost at No. 4 Tennessee to open up their season. Penn is still winless against ranked teams in its history.
Duke led 23-16 at the half, but the Quakers refused to go away.
After missing 17 of its first 18 3-point attempts, Penn got hot from the behind the arc. Whitlatch, who missed her first seven 3s, made three in a row to cut the deficit to 27-25 early in the third.
The Blue Devils restored their lead to 34-27 before Penn went on a 12-1 run, hitting three 3-pointers and Michelle Nwokedi's 3-point play. That gave the Quakers their first lead of the game at 36-35.
Penn led 41-37 after three quarters.
The Quakers extended their lead to 45-39 with 6:55 remaining before Duke's game-ending run.
Whitlatch finished with 18 points to lead the Quakers (0-1).
Both teams got off to slow starts with Duke only leading by two late in the first half before scoring the final five points of the second quarter. Freshman Kyra Lambert had eight points to lead the Blue Devils, hitting all three of her shots. She finished the game with 12.
Duke could have been up more, but committed 16 turnovers in the first 20 minutes. The Blue Devils finished with 24 turnovers.
