Upcoming Event: Women's Basketball versus Countdown to Craziness on October 3, 2025 at 7 p.m.
/
7 p.m.
Women's Basketball
vs Countdown to Craziness
Tomko: Christmas Comes Early
12/16/2008 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
DURHAM, N.C. ? With nine days until Christmas, Duke sophomore guard Karima Christmas decided to deliver the best game of her career to the No.3 ranked Stanford Cardinal, a gift Stanford would probably like to return.
Christmas put together a nice package of statistics boasting career highs in both points (14) and rebounds (9), while knocking down the first two threes of her career in the Blue Devils 56-52 win over the Cardinal.
“I think I take it one game at a time, coming out with the same mindset, always being able to attack and always being ready to go in at some point and time,” Christmas said. “I guess I wanted to step up this game and make a presence.”
Her presence was specifically felt in the second half reeling off 10 points on 4-of-6 shooting to go along with seven rebounds after intermission.
The bow on top of her career performance was her final rebound of the night leaping straight up and over the Stanford player attempting to box her out for her fourth offensive rebound of the half. The rebound, pulled down with 18.6 seconds left and Duke ahead by three, gave Duke another possession late resulting in Abby Waner knocking down 1-of-2 from the line pushing the lead to four.
“It was the last few seconds in the game,” Christmas said. “We couldn't let them get another possession. I just had to get the ball and take care of it.”
Prior to tonight's game Christmas was averaging 3.3 points and 2.7 rebound per game for the season playing a little over 12 minutes a night.
“Karima has worked very hard,” head coach Joanne P. McCallie said. “A very talented player, again defensively she can do so many things, press, run and defend and also taking it hard to the rack like she did. It is not surprising, but these things start happening as the season plays out.”
Christmas's teammates see this effort from the sophomore almost every day at practice with nobody having more confidence in her abilities than her 11 teammates.
“Tonight was unreal,” Waner said. “We were talking in the locker room before she came back in and Joy [Cheek] said ?we have never seen anybody play like that in a while, have a singular game like that'.”
While her play tonight didn't surprise anyone around the Duke program, the two threes she drained in the second half may have surprised herself.
“I didn't feel like they were going in, but once I hit the first one I was like, I'm going to take another one,” Christmas said.
The sophomore connected on her first jumper of the second half with 16:40 remaining to increase to Duke lead to 36-29. Stanford battled back though, cutting the lead to two before Christmas knocked down her first career three with 13:03 left off on a pass to the top of the arc from Chante Black. Her second three came around 5 minutes later with Black once again finding her teammate, this time in the left corner.
Black, who scored a tough 14 points and grabbed 6 rebounds, was left to create shots for teammates, as the star forward faced double and triple teams throughout the entire game. The 6'5” senior admitted afterward that Stanford did a good job keeping her off-balance by keeping the double teams coming from different directions.
The benefactor of the double teams ended up being Christmas tonight, but McCallie was pleased by the play of the entire bench, as the unit outscored the Cardinal bench 20-12 with all 11 active players seeing minutes in the first half.
“Everybody came off that bench with a little something,” McCallie said. “And then everybody that was in the game and played the most minutes stayed focus and kept attacking.”
“Everyone played a role, in particular Karima off the bench was absolutely fantastic, exactly what we needed,” McCallie added. “She played both sides of the ball, rebounded and was aggressive as well. We are excited about that.”
McCallie and company understand that while this win was sweet, her team won't have much chance to savor it because the Blue Devils head out to the west coast early Wednesday morning as they get set to take on USC in the Women of Troy Basketball Classic on Dec. 19.
“Karima can't carry her rebounds from one [game to another],” McCallie said. “You have got to start all over again, refocus for a new opponent, and I think we are getting pretty good at that.”
Players Mentioned
C
/ Women's Basketball
G/F
/ Women's Basketball
G
/ Women's BasketballWomen's Basketball Season Ticket Holder Tailgate
Sunday, September 07
Duke WBB: Kara Lawson - 13 Gold Medals. One Standard
Thursday, August 14
Duke WBB Postgame: NCAA Tournament Elite Eight
Sunday, March 30
Duke WBB Postgame: NCAA Tournament Sweet Sixteen
Friday, March 28
