No. 3 Seed Duke Advances with Win Over College of Charleston

Friday, March 20

Durham, N.C.

11:30 a.m.

Duke University

Charleston

Photo by: Duke Athletics

No. 3 Seed Duke Advances with Win Over College of Charleston

3/20/2026 2:33:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score Box Score Postgame Quotes Photo Gallery Postgame Notes Photo Gallery

DURHAM, N.C. – Duke sophomore Toby Fournier scored 24 points and Delaney Thomas added 19 and nine rebounds to lift the No. 3 seeded Blue Devils to an 81-64 victory over No. 14 seed College of Charleston in the opening round of the NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament inside Cameron Indoor Stadium.

Jordan Wood added 17 points, going 5-of-5 from distance and 6-of-6 overall. Ashlon Jackson and Taina Mair quarterbacked the offense with a combined 17 assists. The Blue Devils improve to 25-8 overall, while Charleston ends its season at 27-6.

HOW IT HAPPENED

Fournier and the Blue Devils dominated the paint early, getting all their field goals around the rim. The sophomore forward had nine of them, including an old-fashioned three-point play as Duke built an 11-5 lead three minutes into the game.
Charleston responded with a 5-0 run to make it a one-point game at the media timeout.
The Blue Devils started to warm up from distance out of the timeout with Wood and Jackson knocking down consecutive threes and Mair getting a fastbreak layup to put Duke up 19-14 with three minutes to play.
Continuing to push the pace on offense, the Blue Devils extended the lead to nine with six points in a span of 47 seconds to force Charleston into a timeout.
Duke outscored the Cougars 11-2 in the final four minutes of the opening quarter to head into the first break with a 25-16 advantage.
The Blue Devils continued to widen the gap in the second with an 11-0 run over span of four minutes to make it a 38-18 game. Wood headlined the spurt with a pair of three-pointers on the offensive end, while Duke's defense kept the Cougars to 0-of-8 shooting in that stretch.
Duke dominated both ends of the floor in the second quarter, outscoring Charleston 20-10 in the period for a 45-26 halftime lead. The Blue Devils held the Cougars to 2-of-16 shooting in the frame. Fournier led all Duke scorers with seven points in the 10 minutes.
Balanced scoring was the story of the third quarter as six different Blue Devils got on the board. Duke shot 50 percent from the floor, going ahead by 25, 66-41, after 30 minutes of play. The Blue Devils frustrated Charleston's offense with the Cougars hitting just three field goals. Nine of Charleston's points came from the charity stripe.
Charleston won the fourth quarter, 23-15, forcing Duke into six turnovers while shooting 53 percent from the floor. Wood played all 10 minutes in the period, securing five more points to bring her to 15 for the game.
Taryn Barbot led all scorers in the game with 36 points for Charleston. Grace Ezebilo had a game-high 15 rebounds.

UP NEXT

Duke takes on the winner between Baylor and Nebraska, March 22. The time will be announced following the conclusion of the first day of games.

To stay up to date with Duke women's basketball, follow the team on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook and subscribe to the YouTube channel by searching "DukeWBB."

#GoDuke