ACC women’s basketball contender needs help on offense to reach goals

Kara Lawson’s Blue Devils did not bring their offense to Paris.

In a 58-52 slugfest loss to No. 16 Baylor, No. 7 Duke shot 29 percent from the floor, 21 percent from 3-point land and committed 15 turnovers. The Lady Bears outscored the Blue Devils 15-9 in the final frame.

Obviously, that’s not a recipe for winning basketball games. Lawson’s Duke teams have garnered a reputation for playing defense-first basketball and mucking the game up for their opponent — and indeed, they tried to do that against Baylor, registering a combined 20 blocks and steals — but scoring more points than the other team is still the objective.

Over Lawson’s past four seasons leading the Blue Devils, her teams are 6-22 in games where they make less than 36 percent of their field goals. They are 32-1 when shooting north of 50 percent from the floor. Simply put, despite consistently having one of the best defenses in the nation under Lawson, Duke wins when it is efficient on offense.

The only bright spot on that end of the floor against Baylor was reigning ACC Rookie of the Year Toby Fournier — Duke’s lone double-digit scorer — who tallied 16 points and 10 rebounds in her first collegiate start.

Lawson only played seven players against Nicki Collen’s Lady Bears. Absent from the lineup were two players that she talked glowingly about in the preseason, freshman Emilee Skinner and redshirt freshman Arianna Roberson. Both are former McDonald’s All-Americans, and Skinner was tabbed by ESPN as the fourth-best prospect in the country.

“Roberson is the most athletic player we’ve had at center,” Lawson told SB Nation last month at ACC Tip-Off. “We haven’t had this type of athleticism at the center position in terms of her vertical ability, so I’m hopeful that that translates into some blocked shots and into some versatility there for us defensively, and then on the offensive end she’s capable as well.”

Roberson missed last season with a knee injury, but was expected to be able to play for the Blue Devils this year. The ESPN broadcast said that both she and Skinner were unable to play because of injury, but didn’t give any details beyond that statement.

Skinner might be the most talented point guard Lawson has ever had in Durham. In addition to being named a McDonald’s and Jordan Brand All-American, she featured for Team USA’s U19 team this past summer. The Utah native chose Duke over offers from Iowa, TCU, Notre Dame and UCLA.

“She can score, she can pass, she can defend, she can rebound well. She starts with really good position size, a 6-foot-1 point guard,” Lawson said of Skinner last month. “When you have a player that has skill to be able to problem solve — see, skill allows you to problem solve. If something gets taken away, you have the skill to be able to do something else. If you drive and it’s cut off, you have the skill to be able to get out of that. So, she has those skills, and then she has a very high basketball IQ, and she’s a quick decision-maker. So, all of those things are very good places to start as a freshman. I think she’ll be an impactful player for us, and we’ll need her to be an impactful player.”

If Monday’s game against Baylor is any indication, Duke may have to lean on Skinner’s offensive savviness and Roberson’s inside presence more than many initially expected. They may be the keys to the Blue Devils contending.

Their timelines for returning are unclear. Lawson wasn’t asked about Roberson or Skinner in her postgame presser Monday and didn’t go out of her way to address their statuses.

Next up for Duke is a home game on Sunday against a Holy Cross team that just won in another ACC gym, taking a 72-71 victory at Boston College.

The Blue Devils won the ACC Tournament last season and went to the Elite Eight — the first time they’ve accomplished both of those feats since 2013. If Duke, who was voted as the preseason favorite to win the ACC, plans to repeat as conference champions, it’ll need to step up its game on the offensive end of the floor.