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 Devils Survive Maryland Scare, 66-64 Team Box |  Devils Survive Maryland Scare, 66-64 Player Stats |
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In what has been the craziest, most competitive ACC tournament in recent memory, Duke managed to avoid the upset bug that bit the #2 and #3 seeds and moved on to Semifinal Saturday. The Devils got the worst possible first round matchup in either UNC or Maryland. Though Duke swept the Terps, their potent combination of three point shooting, size and depth gave them several matchup advantages over the Devils. In particular, underachieving Maryland center Lynetta Kizer finally put it all together late in the regular season, turning into a dependable double-double machine and lethal low-post scorer. Though the Terps lost their last three games of the year, Brenda Frese proved how resilient her team was by blowing out to a big lead over a resurgent UNC team and holding on down the stretch. Having a bye in a tournament can be a double-edged sword. It's an advantage in that your opponent will eventually feel some fatigue and might make some mistakes, but it's a disadvantage in that one's opponent has had a day to get into rhythm. That was certainly the case in this contest, as Maryland blew out to a 20-9 lead. After Jasmine Thomas opened up the game with a drive, Maryland got an offensive rebound and Lori Bjork drained a three. Kizer powered up over starter Allison Vernerey for a score, but Jasmine tied the game at 5 with a trey of her own. Kizer scored again and Maryland's Jackie Nared hit a three to make it 10-5. Karima Christmas scored on a baseline drive and Keturah Jackson drove right up the gut to make it 10-9. That's when the wheels fell off the Duke bus for a while as the Terps went on a 10-0 run. The run was fueled by 4 Duke turnovers and Maryland offensive rebounding. Joy Cheek stepped up, went baseline, scored and was fouled. Kizer hit 2 foul shots and Anjale Barrett hit a jumper to make it 24-13. J.Thomas stepped it up by draining a three and a 15' jumper to cut the lead to 6. Maryland kept the pressure up with a great pass into the post, but Cheek set Vernerey up perfectly with a high-low pass to make it 26-20 with eight minutes left. Christmas drove and scored, and Kizer picked up her second foul after a Maryland turnover that would have a big impact on the rest of the half. With Kizer out, Bridgette Mitchell attacked the basket for a score, and then came up with a brilliant steal. She passed it ahead to Christmas, who passed it back to her in a flawlessly executed 2-on-1 fast break. That tied it at 26, but the Terps stormed back with 5 straight points (including a Bjork trey). Cheek countered with a jumper and a dish to J.Thomas for a three that tied it up with 3:23 left. Vernerey hit a foul shot to give Duke the lead, and Shay Selby made a cameo to throw a laser strike to Christmas. After a Maryland turnover, Cheek nailed a turnaround jumper and got fouled to push Duke's lead up to 6. Barrett hit a foul shot and the Terps got the ball back for the final shot. Selby stood her ground and took a crucial charge on Barrett. In the first half, Duke had a 12-7 edge in points off turnovers, but Maryland owned second-chance points, 7-2. Jasmine had 11 first half points, while Cheek had 10. The Devils shot an impressive 52% from the floor and even outrebounded the Terps. Kizer picked up her third foul 37 seconds into the second half, and when Jasmine hit a 15' baseline jumper, it looked like Duke might take control. Instead, Maryland got three cracks at the basket and then scored. KJ committed an offensive foul (one of two on the evening) and Bjork was left wide open for a three. Just like that, Duke's lead was only 39-37. They counter-punched with 4 foul shots from Krystal Thomas (who did a great job of getting to the line) and a three from Jas. Maryland cut that 46-37 lead away quickly with a three from Barrett and a jumper from Kizer. Christmas rose up to sink an 18' jumper, but Barrett & Kizer kept coming and cut the lead to 48-46 with 13:09 left. Christmas countered with a drive and Jas found Cheek inside after a Maryland turnover. After another turnover from KJ (one of her 7), Barrett scored. Jas rubbed off a screen and sank yet another three, her fifth of the game. That made it 55-48, but Barrett hit 2 foul shots and Bjork hit a three of her own. This time around, a Duke trey came from an unlikely source: Keturah Jackson. KJ hit a long jumper from the wing to make it 58-53 with under ten minutes left. There wasn't much scoring to be done in the next portion of the game: K.Thomas hit a foul shot and Jasmine drained a 15' jumper to make it 61-57. Duke then went ice cold while the Terps sank 6 straight foul shots to take a 62-61 lead with 3:26 left. Mitchell, who always has the uncanny ability to appear as a key figure in situations like these, had hit 1 foul shot to give Duke 62 points. With 2:18 left, Mitchell was fouled going for a rebound, went to the line and coolly sank both shots to make it 64-63. Krystal came up with a big steal and Cheek drove in to give Duke a crucial three point lead. Maryland came down and tried to set up Kizer, who wheeled around and found her shot blocked by Christmas. The Maryland bench (perhaps an assistant coach) somehow incurred the wrath of the official on this play and was T'd up, but Jas somehow missed both free throws. Jasmine then missed an off-balance shot and Maryland's Dara Taylor was fouled on the rebound. She made 1 of 2 shots with 37 seconds left, and the Terps opted not to foul the Devils and instead wait to get the ball back. It worked like a charm, as the disorganized Devils could only muster an off-balance desperation shot from Cheek. Maryland's Nared rebounded the ball but lost track of time & score, firing away from just a step beyond halfcourt when she could have used another second or two to take a better shot. Duke made many, many mistakes in this game and failed to execute some basics. That said, their defense was unrelenting, making few errors. Maryland hung in because they were making a lot of hustle plays, winding up with advantages in both points off turnovers and second chance points. Duke was even outrebounded overall by 1. It was Duke's offense that saved them on this day, along with the defensive played the last 5-7 minutes of the game. Duke missed 7 free throws (12-19), had 20 turnovers and fouled 20 times. Despite all this, Duke found a way to win against an opponent brimming with young talent. Survive and advance, as Jim Valvano once said. It's not something that ranked teams Virginia or Florida State can say that they're going to be doing this weekend. Duke will now rebound with a rematch to a game that was more of the same: hand-to-hand combat. |
Devils Survive Maryland Scare, 66-64 Team Box | Devils Survive Maryland Scare, 66-64 Player Stats |