Terps beat Blue Devils for first time at Comcast Center

For all the success enjoyed by the Terrapin women's basketball team in recent years, a win in its home arena against its biggest rival had evaded them. So seconds after the No. 4 Terps withstood every challenge No. 12 Duke threw at them in a hard-fought 85-70 win Monday, senior forward Laura Harper took the public address microphone from coach Brenda Frese, and along with the 15,531 fans who propelled the Terps to the win, Harper let out the program's collective pent-up frustration. "We beat Duke!" Harper yelled. The Terps needed a 17-4 run to open the game, a tie-breaking 17-2 run to end it, and a career-high-tying 30 points from junior forward Marissa Coleman to get it, but the Terps had their first-ever victory in Comcast Center against the Blue Devils. And while the Terps (20-1, 4-0) were the higher-ranked team, and were playing at home, and the Blue Devils (13-4, 2-1) no longer had Terp-killing guard Lindsey Harding who torched the Terps for 57 points in two games last season, the victory was definitely something to be proud of. "This was just a very special win for our team and for our program," Frese said. "I can't say enough, for this team, for our seniors, for our fans, what it meant to be able to come out and play the way that we played today." The Terps had lost to the Blue Devils in 14 consecutive regular season games dating back to 2000, winning only in the 2006 National Championship Game and 2006 ACC Tournament semifinals. The Terps hadn't beaten the Blue Devils at home since 1998 when they played at Cole Field House, and while four of the previous six ACC games with the highest attendance were between the visiting Blue Devils and the host Terps, the Terps lost each time. The Comcast Center was rocking again Monday, and even during winter break the student wall was mostly full, creating an atmosphere similar to, or perhaps this season more electric than, an important men's game. "I've never heard Comcast that loud, honestly," Harper said. "In the past when we've not really won versus Duke, the fans were there, but we actually gave them something today to get hype about." The excitement, and the feeling in the arena that this might actually be the year the Terps beat Duke, persisted from the opening tipoff. After the Terps initial 17-4 run forced the Blue Devils to take two early timeouts, it appeared the historical tables would perhaps turn even more easily than expected. But the Blue Devils fired off a 10-0 run of their own, the beginning of a gut-wrenching trend for Terps' fans. It was the first of three times the Blue Devils would allow the Terps to take a double-digit lead, only to get back to within three. "I was very proud of our team when we fought back from the deficits," Blue Devils coach Joanne P. McCallie said. "That was a good thing." After the Terps slowly built up its second double-digit lead at 31-20, and watched it slowly slip away, two emotional three-pointers by Coleman in the final 1:04 of the half opened things up for the third time for the Terps, sent the crowd into frenzy, and sent the Terps into the locker room with a 43-32 halftime lead. Coleman had 17 points at the half. "She's a matchup nightmare," Frese said. "I thought Duke had no answer for Marissa." The Blue Devils showed their resolve again early in the second half, quickly cutting the Terps lead to 47-44 before the Terps were forced to call a timeout just more than two minutes in. But the Terps weathered that storm as well. With their five-point lead beginning to look tenuous again midway through the second half, and the Terps momentarily struggling to score, junior guard Kristi Toliver buried a deep three over Blue Devils junior guard Abby Waner late in the shot clock to give the Terps a 63-55 lead with 9:37 remaining. Toliver ended up with 21 points after scoring just two in the first half. "I realize that my first-half performance wasn't very great, but luckily I had all my teammates playing extremely well and we stayed in the game," Toliver said. "For me I just wanted to go out and play loose and free. I think I was a little more tight in the first half." The Blue Devils took their resiliency a step further after Toliver's three, ripping off a 10-2 run that tied the game at 65-65, the first tie since it was 2-2. The game would also be tied at 67-67 and 68-68 before the Terps opened it up for good. The game-ending 17-2 run was highlighted by another huge three by Coleman that gave the Terps a 79-68 lead with 2:57 remaining, realistically ending the Blue Devils' chance for another comeback. "Never at any point in the game was I thinking we were going to lose," Coleman said. The Terps beat Duke.