Duke women's basketball's late comeback falls short against ...

Duke women's basketball struggled with turning the ball over as it fell to UConn in the NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 in Portland, Ore. on Saturday.

Those 23 turnovers came back to bite the Blue Devils in the 53-45 loss, especially as they went on a 12-2 run towards the end of the fourth quarter that saw them come up just short against the Huskies.

The Blue Devils struggled in all facets in the first half, seeing themselves trail by 10 points at the break. Only making five baskets didn't help, neither did the 13 first half turnovers, even if the Huskies didn't take full advantage of them. While the defense helped keep them in the game, holding the Huskies to 39% shooting from the field, it wasn't the best start in the Sweet 16.

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Mixed results for Blue Devils in the third quarter of Sweet 16

The Blue Devil offense scored 14 points in the third quarter, more than they had in the first 20 minutes, but somehow found themselves down more than they were at the half (23-13). The defense let the Huskies shoot above 50%, and they finally took advantage of the Blue Devils turnovers to score 11 points off those. Paige Bueckers scored 10 points alone in the quarter.

Turnovers hurt Duke Women's Basketball against UConn

If you thought six turnovers in the first quarter was bad, Duke was able to add seven in the first five minutes of the second quarter. In that time, UConn only got five points which kept Duke in the game before it added eight points in the final portion of the quarter. What kept Duke in the game, at least in the first half, was that the Huskies couldn't take advantage with only six points off turnovers.

Slow start all around gets worse for Duke

The Blue Devils went 3 of 13 in the first quarter, scoring only six points. The good news is that they were only down four after the Huskies shot 5 of 14, and had just 10 points. One of the issues for the Blue Devils was the six turnovers that hurt their ability to find an offensive rhythm. The Blue Devils didn't help matters by hitting just 1 of their last 8 shots in the quarter.

The second quarter had them start 0 for 4 with seven more turnovers in the first five minutes before scoring a bucket.

Maxwell Donaldson covers high school sports and Jacksonville State athletics for the Gadsden Times. Find him on Twitter/X @_Max_Donaldson and contact him at MDonaldson@gannett.com.