Wake Forest women fall to No. 7 Terps, 73-63

Wake Forest rallied within three points in the closing minutes of what became a 73-63 loss to the Terrapins on Friday night.

"Let's not dig ourselves those holes," Hoover said. "We've proven that we're going to do it. We're going to fight in a game. We're going to come back and fight. Let's figure out why we're digging those holes."

Chelsea Douglas scored 17 points to lead the Demon Deacons (10-13, 3-8 Atlantic Coast Conference), who were denied arguably their biggest victory in 20 years and lost their fifth straight.

They clawed back in the game with a 31-14 run during a 12-minute span that coincided with a stretch in which Maryland had 12 turnovers on 17 possessions.

"We didn't sit back and let them control things," Hoover said.

Tianna Hawkins and Alyssa Thomas scored 23 points apiece for Maryland and combined for their team's final 15.

Malina Howard finished with 12 points to help the Terrapins (19-3, 10-1) sweat out their ninth straight win. They shot 54 percent and built a 20-point lead before blowing nearly all of it during a dizzying series of mistakes.

"We saw them coming at us, and instead of making the easy pass, we tried to make the hard one, and it resulted in turnovers," Thomas said.

They regrouped just in time to preserve their huge matchup Monday night at No. 5 Duke, which enters a half-game ahead of Maryland in the standings.

"We had to find a way to grind it out tonight, and not every game is going to be pretty," coach Brenda Frese said. "That was definitely for sure. And we found a way in a close game to grind it out."