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In their final trip to Cameron Indoor Stadium as an ACC opponent, the Maryland women's basketball team was looking to knock off their rival, but fell just short in their endeavor. The Terrapins lost 84-63 to the Duke Blue Devils, becoming the second Maryland team to lose at Cameron Indoor in the past few days.
The game started off a bit sloppy for the Terps with three turnovers in the first six minutes, allowing Duke to shoot out to a 5-0 lead early on. The Terps would fight back, however, led by freshman Lexie Brown who scored four points in the first six minutes. Senior Alyssa Thomas got off to a hot start passing the ball, dishing out four assists in that time.Senior Katie Rutan made her first three-point attempt of the game to help lead the early charge for the Terps as well.
Alexis Jones got hot from downtown for the Blue Devils early on, hitting her first two shots of the day for six points early on it what seemed like a battle of the point guards. Duke shot well early from three as a team overall, starting 3-4 from beyond the arc.
With the score tied 24-24 late in the first half, Lexi Brown continued her good start, hitting a big three from the corner to take the lead by three. The Blue Devils would battle right back, going on a 6-0 run to force coach Brenda Frese to take a timeout to attempt the halt the run.
Both teams really battled on the glass in the first half, with Maryland hauling in 20 rebounds to Duke's 21. Where Maryland seemed to really struggle the most is at the free throw line. While Duke only attempted one free throw, Maryland had ten attempts in the first half but made only six of them, leaving points on the floor that could have been theirs.
Duke would end the first half on a 14-4 run to take a 38-31 lead into the halftime break, with Lexi Brown leading the way with 11 points. Star Alyssa Thomas went into the half shooting 1-7 from the field with just three points.
The second half started a bit better for both sides, as the Terps would score eight points within the first three minutes and the Blue Devils would follow with five in that time. Rutan hit a big three to pull the deficit within three, but Duke would respond with a basket on the other end to expand the score to 44-39.
After the good start to the half, the Terps would go cold, allowing Duke to roll off seven unanswered points until a long two by Walker-Kimbrough to make the score 49-41.
Alyssa Thomas began to take over from that point, scoring a three-point play followed by a floater in the lane to inflate her point total to eight points with 12 minutes remaining. However, the Terps couldn't hold strong enough on defense, allowing Duke to go down and score on both possessions, keeping the game at a seven point lead.
Tricia Liston proved why she is one of the best shooters in the league, hitting two big threes for Duke, with one being in transition to answer a big Alyssa Thomas shot, making the lead 56-48. When the Terps seemed to claw back, Duke always had an answer.
Alexis Jones was the hot hand throughout the game, knocking down a plethora of threes en route to 16 points before the under-8 media timeout. Her counterpart Lexi Brown stood still at 11 points to that point, shooting just 4-12 from the field.
With 4:32 left in the contest, star Terp went down to the ground, holding her knee in pain, a sight coach Frese likely never wanted to see.Thomas would later return to the game, so it appears the injury was not too serious.
The game would end sourly for Maryland, and their performance wasn't quite up to par as they struggled to shoot the ball from the floor, shooting 32.4%, while getting out-rebounded 44 to 37.
The Terps fell to 20-5 on the season and 8-4 in ACC play.
