Harding Leads Duke past Terps Again, 69-57

Well it was the same old story on Sunday night at the Comcast Center. Another home game with a large crowd, another loss. Duke again sweeps the season series and locks up the 1 seed in the ACC Tournament. With the loss, we can't finish any higher than third place and will most likely be a two seed in the tournament. The Terps can still be the six seed in the ACC Tournament with a loss to BC next week.

While I am disappointed in the loss, we have shown improvement since the last time. To paraphrase Shay "I would rather lose now if it meant we would win the National Championship later"

Positives

Langhorne. After a slow first half, where she didn't recognize the single coverage on her, she took over in the second half scoring 13 points to finish with 15 and 12 rebounds. Her third straight double-double. She looked like the freshman year Langhorne out there. Now if we can get her to work on her free throws.

Defense. I thought the defense was improved since the Duke and Carolina games. You can't help it if Harding makes 9 of her first 10 shots, and she shoots many of them from the perimete. It's not like she was left wide open. Also I think we containted penetration. Duke was forced to take many shots from the top of the key. Lastly, Waner and Smith combined for 7 points and they had more turnovers than us.

Marissa. For the first time since the MTSU game she brought some intensity to the court. Now we just need her to bring it for 40 minutes.

Negatives

Rebounding. We were dominated on the boards. No one went after loose balls and we seemed inclined to the fact that Langhorne would get all of them.

Intensity. Where was the energy? The girls have been waiting a month for this game and this is how they get fired up?

Toliver. She gets so mental against the Duke's and Carolina's. I don't get it. All those missed shots and no assists.

Harper. 5 points and two rebounds. She once again disappeared. She had two rebounds. Aurelie had 1 rebound and played four minutes.

The Offense. All year the team was filled with players who never saw a shot they didn't like. Now only four people want to shoot the ball and none creates their own shot. Langhorne had about 20-30 touches on Sunday. She should touch the ball on almost every possession. Sa'de needs to penetrate more as does Newman.

Officials. They weren't the reason we lost the game, but maybe one time Duke will get called for the moving screens and all the contact they create on the defensive end. No wonder that team is never in foul trouble.

Up Next
Boston College on Sunday with the chance to clinch third place in the conference.