COLLEGE PARK, MD — A loose ball appeared destined to bounce out of bounds near mid-court, before Maryland women’s basketball guard Sarah Te-Biasu intervened. The junior saved the first-quarter possession for Maryland by swinging a pass across her body as she leaped out of bounds.
Forward Kaylene Smikle darted to grab Te-Biasu’s pass. The Rutgers transfer sprinted toward the basket but missed an open layup. Yet, in a half where the Terps bullied Duke on the glass, Christina Dalce grabbed Smikle’s miss before finishing the second-chance layup.
Dalce later fouled out but finished with her second double-double (12 points and 14 rebounds) of the season, as Maryland rode an early lead from start to finish in a comprehensive 85-80 victory over Duke at the XFINITY Center.
A statement victory for the Terps was further amplified by the occasion. It was the first meeting between the former ACC foes since 2015, and Maryland’s win on Sunday evened the all-time series at 41 wins a piece.
“I had to explain the history to a few of our girls leading up to this game, which dates me,” coach Brenda Frese joked. “I just loved how they responded. They understood the legacy, the history piece, and you could see it was a really proud moment for them.”
The Terps played with an intense first-quarter urgency that helped them establish a 9-0 lead as Duke missed its first five attempts from the field.
A pair of layups from Shyanne Sellers’ opened the scoring. Smikle then added the next five with two free throws and a triple.
Dalce made sure the Terps maintained their early advantage with her off-ball presence. The Villanova transfer grabbed seven boards in the first quarter, and also added an emphatic block midway through.
“We knew recruiting her that she was going to be an elite rebounder, shot-blocker, and high motor [player],” Frese said. “He didn’t fear the moment. She was really aggressive and confident, and we needed to have every one of those rebounds.”
Early efforts from Dalce and Sellers — with an additional seven points from Smikle — propelled Maryland to a 21-13 lead as the first quarter closed.
But Duke quickly cut into that advantage after the restart.
A 10-3 run pulled the Blue Devils within three midway through the second quarter, before Maryland’s offense ignited once more. Most of the production came from its ulterior scorers as well.
Foul trouble reduced Sellers to just 11 minutes in the first half. The senior still led the Terps with 11 points over the first 20 minutes, but Dalce and Bri McDaniel contributed a combined 12 to the Maryland scoring tally — including the final six points of the half — to create a 40-33 lead at the break.
Sophomore Oluchi Okanawa shaved Duke’s deficit to seven with a layup just over three minutes into the third quarter. Sellers and Smikle responded as the former dished to the latter for a wide-open triple that re-established Maryland’s double-digit lead.
The two teams combined for a remarkable 31 turnovers through the first three quarters. Those errors didn’t favor a particular side though.
The Terps ironically scored 17 points off of 14 Duke turnovers, while the Blue Devils grabbed 14 points off of 17 Maryland turnovers.
In a play illustrative of the game’s turnover trends, Smikle lost a handle on Duke’s side of the court near the tail end of the third quarter. Junior Ashlon Jackson grabbed possession as she searched for a swift Blue Devil layup.
Hardly a second later, Te-Biasu collected a steal of her own and rifled a full-court pass to a streaking Allie Kubek. The forward casually laid in a bucket as Maryland turned potential peril into points in the blink of an eye.
“She didn’t score that much tonight but because she is a threat — and especially in these past few games she’s shown she is a threat from anywhere on the floor — people have played her honest and that’s something that we can really use to our advantage,” Sellers said of Te-Biasu.
Jackson’s turnover cost Duke a pair of points as the quarter came to a close but the guard found her rhythm soon after. She finished a layup and nailed a three-pointer on ensuing possessions, shrinking Maryland’s lead inside single digits early in the fourth quarter.
Maryland relied on a trio of experience to stave off Duke’s push down the stretch.
Sellers, Smikle, and McDaniel scored 14 of Maryland’s final 16 points. Sellers and Smikle combined for 40 points as Maryland’s two leading scorers, while McDaniel tallied a season-high 15.
Te-Biasu added the other bucket through the Terps’ final stretch. She iced the game with an underhand layup, giving Maryland an 11-point lead with just over a minute to go.
Duke was reduced to fouls as the final 60 seconds drained off the clock.
“I was really encouraged because even when a few players had some nerves within the game that I could see and understand, they were able to work themselves out of it,” Frese said. “There was a game with a lot of adversity, and that response is going to bode really well for us.”
