Duke's D Stifles Maryland, 86-68

It's been nearly 30 hours and I still can't believe how bad we played in the first half. Things started so well when Bales and Williams got into foul trouble, but then Harding took over and Bales' replacement Chante Black showed again why she loves playing vs. Maryland with 9 quick points. By the time the first half was over we were down 17 and the game was essentially over. We made a nice run in the second half to cut it to 9 twice, but we were missing that one stop and/or basket to get the crowd back into the game. Give Duke a ton of credit. They limited Crystal's touches and held her to 0 (yes 0) rebounds and gave Shay fits at the point. We learned a lot yesterday and should be better prepared for the rematch on Feb. 13th.

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Positives (Yes, there were a few)

Looked like Toliver finally regained her legs and shot in the second half. If we can get her to 100% by the time we enter that tough stretch it will help a lot. She kept us in the game in the second half and prevented Duke from sagging off.

Jade Perry. Sometimes she shrinks in games like this, but in the second half I saw her fight for lose balls and also wasn't afraid to shoot over the taller Bales.

Rebounding. We lost the board battle, but only by 1 and that's impressive given Crystal's 0-fer.

Coleman's defense. She did a solid job shutting down Currie for most of the game until some questionable calls and fatigue got to her.

The Crowd. Any time we can get 16,000 people inside Comcast for the women it makes me happy. Let's see how many come back for FSU.

Negatives

Turnovers. 24 is too many against a team like Duke. Especially when we were forcing the ball to spots it would never fit.

Defense. We didn't box out Black at all and Harding had her way with Doron. I expected better play out of our veteran and was shocked that Newman and Doron didn't switch up.

Foul shooting. We missed too many and again Shay missed two.

Shay's play. She said before the game she was going to play loose and then once the game started she rushed shots and forced passes.

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