Two NCAA tournament games and two wins for DePaul women’s basketball, leading to the program’s second ever Sweet 16 appearance. But it has also been two slow offensive starts that left the team trailing in the second half before coming back to win. In the first half against Navy, DePaul shot only 12-39 from the field. That included an 0-10 performance from behind the arc. The team then shot 10-36 in that same time period against Penn State two days later.Now they go up against No. 6/6 Duke Sunday at 1:30 p.m. central time. The Blue Devils are the region’s two seed-a team that opponents are only shooting 36.4 percent against this season, and 29.9 percent from 3-point land.

“It’s something that we talk about a lot is just coming out with energy in the first five minutes of the game, and the first five minutes of the second half,” said point guard Sam Quigley of the team’s slow starts. “But just understanding that even though our shots may not fall, we can still bring intensity on the defensive end and we can prevent them from scoring. I think that’s something when our shots aren’t falling, that’s something that we need to focus on a little more.”

The team has done a good job on the defensive end up to this point in the NCAA tournament, especially defending the long-ball. They held Navy to and Penn State to only 2-13-and that from a team that was shooting over 41 percent from behind the arc going into the game. That stalwart defense has aided their comeback efforts tremendously.

But Head Coach Doug Bruno said he has seen the team play better.

“I don’t think we’ve played well since Georgetown,” said Bruno, referring to his team’s 82-57 victory over the No. 18/18 Hoyas. “I guess in some respects we’re where we thought we needed to be, and that is in a survive-and-advance mode, versus a play-well-look-good-but-not-advance mode. We’ve looked good before in these tournaments but we haven’t advanced, so I think that’s what these tournaments are really about, is defensively hunkering down.”

Another option the team has-and one Keisha Hampton took full advantage of against the Lady Lions-is driving, trying to get an easy basket inside or draw a foul call.

In the Penn State game, Keisha Hampton started the game shooting 1-6. But after a few missed jumpers early, she stopped taking outside shots and started driving, trying to draw a foul and get to the free throw line for easy points. She wound up with six free throws in the first half. Then she exploded for 19 points in the second half and shot 9-12 from the free throw line-including the two game winners.

“When you’re missing shots early, you always wanna go get an easy one, go to the basket, get a layup. You just wanna see the ball go through the net just one time before you can really get yourself started,” Hampton said. “I think in that Penn State game I realized that I was having a tough shooting night to begin it, and I really had to start getting to the basket, hopefully get fouled and make a layup. That’s what definitely got me going.”

Now back in her hometown and playing within a couple blocks of her high school, Hampton and the rest of the squad will have to worry about how to stop Duke Blue Devils team that is led by senior guard Jasmine Thomas. Thomas is scoring 14.9 points per game this season-the only player on her team averaging double-digits.

“They have a great player in Jasmine Thomas, who’s put them on her back,” Bruno said. “And it’s also more than just one. Chelsea Gray is a very gifted and talented player in the backcourt, those two get going together.”

Gray is averaging 8.7 points per game on 42 percent shooting. She has also hit 41 percent of her 3-pointers.

“We’re gonna have to worry about their guards,” said China Threatt. “They’re big and athletic so we’ve been focusing on us, and what we have to do for ourselves to make shots and get stops on defense.”

While it is a concern for Bruno, he chose to hang his hat one thing: That means there is plenty of room fir improvement.

“I’m excited to think that maybe we’ve got a real great ball game to play in us yet, and then another one and another one,” Bruno said. “We’re gonna have to have a great ball game in us as the level of competition moves up.”

———————————-

For more info on the game check out tonight’s blog post here. Keisha Hampton returns home, Taylor Pikes has a knee brace on plus quotes from Duke.