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Duke women’s basketball capped a statement weekend with a 76-62 win over No. 7 NC State on Sunday, securing the program’s first ACC Tournament championship since 2013 and the first under head coach Kara Lawson.
The third-seeded Blue Devils (26-7) avenged all four of their regular-season conference losses during the tournament, defeating Louisville, Notre Dame and NC State on consecutive days to complete what Lawson called a “revenge tour.”
Lawson emphasized the importance of the experience gained during the tournament ahead of the NCAA Tournament.
“I just think it was important to get high quality games and pressure possessions and games against, like, really good teams, because you can never have a shortage of those,” Lawson said in a video posted on X, formerly Twitter, but The Juice Network reporter, Rio. “To be able to get three games in, and then to be able to be in possession games and down and up and against high quality teams, some of the best teams in the country. That’s valuable for our group.”
Lawson added that her team benefited not just from the wins, but from being tested in different ways.
“We got three more exposures to those types of games where each team did something that we struggled with, and then we had to make an adjustment, and then we had to persevere, and then we had to ultimately come out with the win. So that's valuable for us. From an experienced standpoint.”
Duke women’s basketball coach Kara Lawson spoke on Duke taking this experience from the ACC tournament in wins against quality opponents into the Big Dance #JNSportsreport @TheJuiceNC pic.twitter.com/PFmkTeYr8E
— Rio (@trueblue1824) March 9, 2025
Oluchi Okananwa came off the bench to lead Duke with 22 points and 10 rebounds, matching her career high and earning tournament MVP honors. Ashlon Jackson also scored 22 points. Duke trailed by as many as 14 points in the first half before outscoring NC State 47-26 after halftime.
Duke shot 55.2% from the field in the second half and held NC State to 32.3% shooting. A 10-0 run in the third quarter helped the Blue Devils break the game open.
Sunday’s win could improve Duke’s NCAA Tournament seeding. ESPN’s latest projections had the Blue Devils as a No. 3 seed entering the title game. They are expected to host opening-weekend games.
Reporting by of Ehsan Kassim of USA TODAY and Aaron Beard of the Associated Press contributed to this article.
