Again, they waited till the end.
In its ACC home opener, the No. 3 Blue Devils edged out No. 14 Maryland by seven points—and much of that victory came from a 7-0 run made in the last two minutes of play.
After a string of Terrapin leads in the last six minutes and multiple ties, senior guard Jasmine Thomas made a 3-pointer with 1:58 left in the game to finally take the lead from the Terrapins. Her next basket 48 seconds later, which was followed by a steal and score by Chelsea Gray, gave Duke (15-0, 1-0 in the ACC) its largest edge of the night. Its 71-64 win wouldn’t be far behind.
For head coach Joanne P. McCallie, the intensity of the last few minutes of play was the level of effort the team had been looking for all night.
“For Jaz, I loved her last four minutes,” McCallie said. “I would have liked to have played the 40 minutes like the last four minutes.”
That strong finish was nothing new for the Blue Devils, who have grown used lately to relying on buckets made at the end of play. The team has survived similar close games against the ranked squads Texas A&M and Xavier.
“We’ve been here so many times already that I think as a team we are comfortable in that situation and we just all come together,” Thomas said.
The Terrapins (13-2, 0-1) led the Blue Devils for much of the first half, taking advantage of Duke’s poor shooting. The team made only three of its 15 3-point attempts in the first half, while Maryland shot 43.8 percent from the field in the first period.
To make up for its poor shooting, the Blue Devils had to rely on a strong defensive performance against a big Terrapin team. Repeatedly fighting for the ball in the post, Krystal Thomas pulled down 10 rebounds, with eight coming in the first half. Thomas was aided by Haley Peters, who finished the contest with nine rebounds.
Thomas was much more pleased with her performance Thursday night than Tuesday’s matchup against the Wildcats, when the forward played limited minutes and didn’t find the bottom of the basket once. She said she tried to minimize her number of fouls against Maryland to ensure that she could stay on the floor longer.
“That’s my role on the team—I have to be a presence in the paint,” Thomas said. “Kentucky was a rough game for me... but with the turnaround that we had there was no time to dwell. Maryland is big, I knew I had defensive responsibilities to take care of.”
Her defensive effort allowed Duke, which was able to attain more rebounds than Maryland in the second half of play, to end up “deflating” the Terrapins defense, according to Maryland head coach Brenda Frese.
“We had difficulties in how they were crashing the glass,” Frese said. “It was difficult because I thought we played with great poise for the first 37 minutes then we just lost our composure.”
For Frese’s young roster—which was led by Kim Rogers, who finished with 18 points—the end of the game was predicted for them. Jasmine Thomas, who finished the game with 22 points, scored seven points in the final two minutes, proving again that she is Duke’s go-to clutch scorer.
“We said it in the timeout that [Jasmine Thomas] was going to take over, so it’s disappointing to see plays like that come through,” Frese said. “I’m ready for her to graduate.”
Although Duke’s offense wavered throughout the night, the team was steadied by freshman Tricia Liston, who scored seven in the second half to finish with 12 points—her second-best total at Duke.
After Thursday’s game and tough matchups against Xavier and Kentucky over Winter Break, the Blue Devils will take a needed break until their Jan. 14 matchup against Florida State. During the time off, the team will work on transition defense, rebounding and preventing turnovers, McCallie said. Despite Duke’s strong effort—which is the best start to a season in McCallie’s 19 years of coaching—it has a lot to improve on.
“We play in spurts a little bit right now...the last four minutes count in so many game situations, that’s terrific, but the dominance is really going to come when we can put together 32 minutes of relentless attack and we are not there yet.”
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