Duke Thumps Longwood In Kara Lawson’s Debut

As a new era dawns with promise

The Kara Lawson era got underway at Duke on Wednesday with a resounding 94-64 win over Longwood.

Granted, Longwood isn’t UConn, but it’s still an impressive win considering a) the coaching transition, b) the depleted talent pool and c) the pandemic.

A lot of things are harder than they normally would be.

However, Duke appears to have a keeper in Vanessa de Jesus as the young point guard stepped in for senior Mikayla Boykin and ran the offense extremely well.

Coach Lawson had this to say about Duke’s only freshman: “[De Jesus is] just a talented player. She’s very composed and she’s got a great demeanor for a point guard. She knows our offense like the back of her hand. She knows where everyone’s supposed to be on the court on every play.”

That’s really exciting to hear.

Also playing well: sophomore Jaida Patrick, who had a career high 21 points. She’s also quite excited about deJesus’s potential.

A bit of bad news: Jennifer Ezeh sat out last year with an ACL and now she’s had one in the other knee. That’s just rotten luck. We wish her the best and speediest recovery.