The 2024–25 Duke Blue Devils women's basketball team represented Duke University during the 2024–25 NCAA Division I women's basketball season. The Blue Devils were led by fifth-year head coach Kara Lawson and played their home games at Cameron Indoor Stadium in Durham, North Carolina as members of the Atlantic Coast Conference.
The Blue Devils started the season ranked eleventh in the AP poll and won their first two games. They then traveled to College Park, Maryland to face eighteenth ranked Maryland, where they lost 85–80. The loss saw them drop to sixteenth in the rankings, where they won three games before the Thanksgiving tournaments. Duke traveled to Nevada to participate in the Ball Dawgs Classic. There they defeated ninth ranked Kansas State and eighth ranked Oklahoma to win the championship. They defeated Oklahoma in a high scoring final 109–99, in overtime. The Blue Devils won a game against Columbia on their return to the East Coast, before facing third ranked South Carolina in the ACC–SEC Challenge. They lost in Columbia 81–70 and were ranked eighth at the time. The Blue Devils followed that with a win in their ACC opener against Virginia Tech. They lost their final non-conference game of the season at South Florida 65–56. They won two games in ACC play, including a dominant 69–31 victory over Pittsburgh before facing rival North Carolina. The Blue Devils lost in Chapel Hill, in overtime 53–46. Duke fell to sixteenth in the polls in the next rankings, but went on a five game winning streak. The winning streak included two defeats of eighteenth ranked teams in California and Georgia Tech. The winning streak was broken by another rival, this time tenth ranked NC State, 89–83. The Blue Devils went 6–2 over their final eight games of the season. The two losses were to first ranked Notre Dame and Louisville in back-to-back games. The defeated eighth ranked North Carolina and twenty-fourth ranked Florida State to finish the regular season.
The Blue Devils finished the regular season 23–7 overall and 14–4 in ACC play to finish in third place. As the third seed in the ACC tournament, earned a bye into the quarterfinals, where they defeated sixth seed Louisville, 61–48. They defeated second seed and sixth ranked Notre Dame 61–56 in the semifinals. They won the final 76–62 over top seed, seventh ranked, rival NC State. The Blue Devils defeated three teams they lost to during the regular season on the way to their tournament title. Sophomore Oluchi Okananwa was named tournament MVP and Ashlon Jackson was named to the All-Tournament First Team. As tournament champions, they received an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament and were the two-seed in the Birmingham 2 region. They defeated fifteen seed Lehigh and ten seed Oregon at home to advance to the Sweet Sixteen. There they faced three seed and twelfth ranked North Carolina for a third time this season. After splitting the regular season games 1–1, Duke prevailed in the tournament to advance to the Elite Eight. There they lost to first seed and second ranked South Carolina 54–50 to end their season. The Blue Devils finished the season with a 29–8 record, and ranked seventh in both the AP and Coaches polls. Their 29 wins were the most since 2012–13.
Previous season
The Blue Devils finished the season 22–12 overall and 11–7 in ACC play to finish in a tie for seventh place. As the seventh seed in the ACC tournament, they defeated tenth seed Georgia Tech in the second round before losing to NC State in the quarterfinals. They received an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament, marking the second straight year the Blue Devils qualified for the tournament. As the seventh seed in the Portland 3 region they defeated tenth seed Richmond in the first round and upset second seed Ohio State in the second round before losing to third seed Connecticut in the Sweet Sixteen to end their season.
Off-season
Departures Departures 21 F 6'5" Lakewood, Colorado Graduated 42 C 6'6" Derby, Kansas Graduated
Incoming transfers Incoming transfers Riley Nelson 11 G 6'2" Sophomore Clarksburg, Maryland Maryland
Recruiting class
Source:
Roster
Schedule and results
Source:
!colspan=9 style=| Regular season
!colspan=9 style=|
!colspan=9 style=|
Rankings
References