Associated Press
GREENSBORO, N.C. — Once again, Duke found itself in a late-game tussle with Maryland. And for the third time this season, the ninth-ranked Blue Devils figured out a way to fight off the determined young Terrapins.
Jasmine Thomas scored 21 points and hit five 3-pointers to help Duke beat Maryland 66-64 Friday in the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament quarterfinals, sending the top seed to the semifinals for the 16th straight year.
Joy Cheek added 14 points for the Blue Devils (25-5), including a leaning bank shot for a 66-63 lead with 1:36 left. Bridgette Mitchell had a pair of go-ahead free throws on the previous possession for Duke, which narrowly avenged an overtime loss to the Terrapins in last year’s final.
“It feels good to come in here and grind this win out and move on,” Thomas said. “I think just like we have been doing all season, we have to take what we didn’t do well in this game and transfer it over into the next game. In the ACC tournament, the teams are familiar, so it’s not really about executing and doing the X’s and O’s.
“It’s about who wants it more. That’s what we have to prove this year, is that we want it more.”
Duke advanced to face fourth-seeded Georgia Tech, which beat Wake Forest in Friday’s first game at the Greensboro Coliseum.
While the Blue Devils have been atop the ACC all season and the ninth-seeded Terrapins’ NCAA tournament hopes are in question, the game ended up fitting right in with the other matchups between a pair of programs that can’t get out of one another’s way. It was the sixth time in seven seasons that Duke and Maryland met in the ACC tournament, and the rivalry includes the Terrapins’ overtime win against the Blue Devils in the 2006 NCAA championship game.
Maryland (19-12) had played Duke tough in the regular season, losing by one at home in January and hanging within a point of the Blue Devils with about 4 minutes left before falling 71-59 two weeks ago in Cameron Indoor Stadium.
