No. 5 Duke women hold off No. 8 Maryland 80-72

DURHAM, N.C. – Haley Peters scored a career-high 21 points and No. 5 Duke beat No. 8 Maryland 80-72 on Sunday for its 10th straight win.

Chelsea Gray had seven of her 17 points in the final 3 minutes to help the Blue Devils (16-2, 7-0) remain the Atlantic Coast Conference's only unbeaten team in league play.

Alyssa Thomas matched a career-high with 26 points and Tianna Hawkins added 17 for the Terrapins (18-2, 5-2). They whittled a 12-point deficit to three on Lynetta Kizer's jumper with 3½ minutes left.

Gray followed with a 3-pointer roughly 30 seconds later to make it 74-68, and her jumper with 1:04 remaining pushed the lead back to six and made it a two-possession game the rest of the way.

Duke then went 4 of 4 from the free-throw line in the final minute to seal its 34th straight win at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

Peters was 10 of 12 from the field for the Blue Devils — who shot 50 percent, never trailed in the second half and held a 41-30 rebounding edge in winning their 26th straight ACC game at home.

The Terrapins, the last ACC team to beat them at Cameron when they did it in 2008, were outscored 46-36 in the paint.

With former Duke star Alana Beard watching from behind the bench, the Blue Devils threatened to break the game open shortly after halftime. They outscored Maryland 15-4 over the opening 7-plus minutes to push their lead into double figures for the first time while forcing the Terps to miss 12 of their first 13 shots.

Gray's running jumper gave the Blue Devils their first double-figure lead at 56-45 with 13:27 left. Tricia Liston capped the burst roughly 40 seconds later with a 3 that made it 59-47.

Thomas tightened things back up by countering with 3-pointers about 2½ minutes apart.

Gray finished with 11 assists for Duke while Elizabeth Williams added 16 points, Richa Jackson had 11 and Allison Vernerey 10. Kizer had 12 points for Maryland.

On paper, this one certainly looked like an even matchup. The Terrapins and Blue Devils — the ACC's only two teams ranked in the top 10 — ranked first and second in the league in a handful of stat categories including shooting percentage, 3-point accuracy, rebounding and assists.

For most of the game, that's exactly how it played out.

Peters scored 13 points and Williams added 12 during a tight first half while Hawkins had 15 and Thomas scored 14. During one dizzying 3½-minute stretch, the lead changed hands nine times.