All eyes were on Iciss Tillis prior to tipoff last night as the Duke faithful gave the 6-foot-4 forward a standing ovation in acknowledgment of her reaching the 1,000 career-point plateau two games ago. Tillis, with a game high 19 points and three blocks, retained the crowd's attention during the game by leading the Blue Devils (18-0, 6-0 in the ACC) to an overwhelming 101-52 win over the struggling Maryland Terrapins (8-10, 2-5). The victory extended Duke's ACC winning streak to 30 games.
"[Tillis] is just so hard to defend," Maryland head coach Brenda Frese said. "I mean, the way can she can shoot the three and beat you off of the dribble... I just think she was really able to take it at us tonight."
With 1:15 remaining in the first half, the junior buried a three-pointer from the top of the arc, capping off a dominating 17-2 run for Duke that gave them a 37-21 lead to take into the locker room. The Blue Devils showed Maryland no mercy in the second half, as they outscored the Terps 64-31.
"We were all kind of clicking tonight," Duke forward Michele Matyasovsky said. "I think everyone just felt together.... We could really feel the team chemistry."
After jumping out to an early 18-6 first half lead, Duke suddenly caught a case of the turnover bug, giving the ball to Maryland on three straight possessions.
The Terrapins then went on an 11-0 run to get within one of the Blue Devils midway through the first act. Eight out of those 11 consecutive points were attributed to Blue Devil turnovers.
In the end, though, Maryland proved to be no match for the overpowering Blue Devils. Six Duke players posted double figure scoring efforts, including Sheana Mosch's 15 off the bench. Goestenkors applauded Mosch for her effort after a rough start to the game.
Jessica Foley and Wynter Whitley also contributed significantly to Duke's 41 bench points scoring 11 apiece.
"That was just an amazing game from Duke," Frese said. "I don't think I've ever looked at the boxscore to see six players in double figures and obviously the way they shot the ball tonight was just tremendous. They're very deserving of their No. 1 ranking."
On the defensive side of the ball, Duke suffocated the Terrapins offensive attack, holding them to 34 percent from the field as a team and limiting their leading scorer, senior guard Renneika Razor to just 1-of-6 shooting and eight points for the game, a shade under half of her average.
"Iciss defended [Razor] and I thought she did an excellent job," Duke head coach Gail Goestenkors said. "We wanted to limit her touches and I think we did that, and also, I think that Iciss' height maybe gave her some problems as well."
Duke's defense put the clamp on Maryland after their 11-0 run. They dominated the defensive rebound category with 20.
"Duke's defense really turned it up a notch and scoring 52 points, we obviously had a tough time putting the ball in the basket," Frese said.
As for the Blue Devils, Goestenkors was more than pleased with her team's performance.
"I'm just really happy with our overall play," she said. "I thought we started the game well. We hit a little lull early, but then I thought we regained our focus and intensity and played some really good basketball, especially in the second half.... It was nice to put together a full game of really good basketball."
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