Sunday's ACC Tournament final at 1 p.m. in Greensboro is between two teams that know each other very well—and don’t particularly like each other.
It's Duke-Maryland, and it may be a better rivalry game now, in terms of recent history, than the one between Duke and that team wearing a lighter blue eight miles away.
Three years ago, when Abby Waner and Carrem Gay were freshmen, the Blue Devils squandered a 13-point lead to lose the national title to the Terrapins in overtime. Then-freshman Kristi Toliver hit a step-back 3-pointer to force the extra period with six seconds left in regulation, and she and fellow freshman Marissa Coleman combined for nine of the team’s last 13 points in the 78-75 victory.
Even now, Toliver still isn't exactly shy about her play that day. After Duke beat Maryland this year, the sharp-shooting guard said that it was too early in the year to be breaking the Blue Devils’ hearts—and Waner wasn’t a huge fan of the comment.
“I remember Kristi saying that it was a little too early for them to be breaking our hearts after the first game,” she said after beating Florida State Saturday. “I definitely don’t want to be breaking her heart tomorrow either."
"I mean, I won’t say I like Maryland by any means.... I’m not going to say I have a vendetta against Maryland, I just want to win a championship.”
Duke is coming off two of its best games of the season in the Tournament—victories over Virginia and Florida State—and also closed the season with perhaps its two best performances against Wake Forest and North Carolina. It's as good a time as any to be peaking, but will the Blue Devils be able to prolong their streak against the dual-pronged attack of Toliver and Coleman? In the Terrapins’ convincing victory over North Carolina before the Duke game Saturday, the two first-team All-ACC seniors combined for 54 points in the 95-84 win.
Still, Waner’s not worried.
“They’re both very good players, but we know it’s all about us," she said. "If we do everything right on our end, which includes keeping focus for all 40 minutes—we can do that—and if we take care of our side, these things will fall into place.”
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