Blue Devils Gear Up For Road Tilt at Richmond

THE OPENING TIP

• The Blue Devils are back on the road this weekend as they make the three-hour journey up to the Old Dominion State to take on Richmond on Sunday, Dec. 4 at 2 p.m. ET.
• Craig Kocher and Robert Fish will call the action on ESPN+ while Chris Edwards calls the game on the radio on the Blue Devil Sports Network from Learfield.
• Defense has been the calling card for the Blue Devils early in the season as the team has held its opponents to a 31.6 percent clip from the field and 50.8 points per game. Those marks check in at sixth and T-13th in the NCAA, respectively, while also ranking first and second in the ACC (as of 12.2.22).
• Redshirt junior Jordyn Oliver checks in at No. 5 nationally and first in the ACC with a 4.29 assist-to-turnover ratio (as of 12.2.22). She leads the team with 3.8 assists per game.
• Behind some stingy first-half defense and a balanced offensive attack, the Duke women’s basketball team picked up a 66-50 victory over Northwestern Thursday evening at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
• Freshman Ashlon Jackson reached double figures for the first time this season as she paced the Blue Devils’ offense with 10 points.
• Elizabeth Balogun, Kennedy Brown and Lee Volker chipped in eight points apiece while Shayeann Day-Wilson and Celeste Taylor added seven each.
• Brown and Balogun each grabbed a team-high eight rebounds, with Jordyn Oliver (seven) and Taylor (six) combining for 13 of the team’s assists.
• Duke and Richmond have squared off on the hardwood seven times through the history of the respective programs with six wins going the way of Duke.
• Sunday’s tilt will be the first meeting between the squads since the 1996-97 season — a 29-point win by the Blue Devils.

 
 
SCOUTING THE SPIDERS

• Richmond enters Sunday’s contest on the heels of a 74-62 victory over William & Mary. Grace Townsend tallied 23 points to lead the Spiders.
• The Spiders feature four players averaging double-figure points, led by Addie Budnik’s 13.4 points per game. Grace Townsend is close behind at 12.4 points a contest while Katie Hill and Siobhan Ryan average 10.6 and 10.1 points, respectively.
• Richmond currently tops the Atlantic 10 in field goal percentage defense (35.0), rebound margin (+7.0), three-point percentage defense (26.0) all categories that they finished the previous season at the…