The first coaching project thrown out in the women’s NCAA tournament took one game. Duke’s Kara Lawson took the first-round match on the whiteboard at Cameron Indoor Stadium as the third seed won by 22 points.
On one hand, we’re talking about Kara Lawson.
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“Yeah, I woke up nervous,” Lawson said firmly, those four words rolled into one, at the postgame press conference. “I’m always at a higher level. That’s just me. I have a sense of urgency.”
Duke, on the other hand, didn’t put up a performance worthy of instilling confidence and meriting a spot in the Sacramento secondary, which is arguably the busiest district with No. 1 UCLA and No. 2 LSU. In a fourth-quarter loss, Lawson threw the whiteboard behind the bench after a timeout. There was no doubt that the Blue Devils would advance. They defeated No. 14 College of Charleston 81-64 to advance to the second round for the fourth consecutive season.
Whether they can move forward from these mistakes is less certain. The Cougars shot 53.3 percent in the fourth quarter, nearly three times the 18.5 percent they shot in the first three quarters. They made four 3-pointers in six attempts and were 2 of 16 from the field. They tied the game after trailing by 28 points.
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Junior Taryn Barbot scored 17 of her game-high 36 points. This is the most Duke has given up on a single player since former NC State guard and current Dallas United player Aziah James scored 36 points in February 2025.
“We definitely held our own,” Cougars head coach Robin Harmony said of the program’s first appearance in the NCAA tournament. “When you play a really good team like Duke, don’t be surprised if you don’t see them in the Final Four, we could get beat by 60 points. We hung in there long enough. Again, hit the shots and we’ll get back into the game a lot more.”
Everything looks small. Duke still won by 17 points and bumped their name to the next line. They will face No. 6 Baylor, which defeated top-four champion Nebraska in Friday’s second game in Chapel Hill. However, these early games are an opportunity for the women’s side to stake its claim, as the women’s side has a much better Cinderella win rate.
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Lawson understands that how a game starts is crucial to how it ends.
“It’s March; you want to win, you want to play well, you want to build momentum,” Lawson said. “So no matter who’s on the field, no matter what the score is, we have a standard of play. If we’re not doing that, then it’s my job to get them to that level. That’s not new to them and our guys. That’s how I am. That’s a normal day.”
Duke’s defense relied too heavily on foul fouls, accounting for almost a third of Charleston’s points (22-for-25 from the field). Starting guards Riley Nelson and Tyna Meyer got into foul trouble in the fourth quarter, and this team doesn’t utilize its bench often.
The Blue Devils gave up another 22 points on 20 turnovers. It matched Charleston’s points-per-game average and was eight points higher than Duke’s average, according to CBB Analytics.
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They let the Cougars dictate every aspect of the game, which will cost them against LSU’s near-record-breaking offensive performance and UCLA’s fine two-way dominance. Junior Jordan Wood and sophomore All-American third-team forward Toby Fournier have taken on the responsibility of better controlling the tempo of the game and making good decisions.
Despite a 3-6 start to the season, this team is still on track to reach the Elite Eight again. They learned, adjusted, and fixed a lot while losing to the clear top teams this season as well as some middling teams. Lawson was asked if they could address the issues that arose against Charleston, with 48 hours to go before another decider home game. Baylor, one of those six losses, won the season opener 58-52 in Paris, with Bears transfer Talia Scott scoring 12 of her 24 points in the fourth quarter. Duke lost the second half 29-19.
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“It’s not like a broken light bulb that you can go to Home Depot and take it out and screw it in,” Lawson said. Advertisement
