Hawkins leads No. 10 Maryland women to 80-40 win

Tianna Hawkins scored 17 points, Katie Rutan had 16 points off four 3-pointers and No. 10 Maryland defeated Clemson 80-40 on Sunday for its 12th straight win over the Tigers. The Terps (17-3, 8-1 Atlantic Coast Conference) won their seventh straight since their lone league loss to North Carolina back on Jan. 3. Maryland dominated the rematch with the Tar Heels this past Thursday, 85-59, and kept the offensive show going at Littlejohn Coliseum. Hawkins, the ACC's leading scorer, made 7 of 12 shots and grabbed 10 rebounds. Alyssa Thomas, second to Hawkins in league scoring and tied with her in ACC rebounding, had 10 points and 10 rebounds for her 12th double-double for the season. Alicia DeVaughn had 14 points and Maryland had five players in double figure scoring. Nikki Dixon had 17 points to lead Clemson, which has lost seven of eight. Maryland outrebounded Clemson 44-23 and held the Lady Tigers to 25 percent shooting (14 of 56) for the game. Rutan, a transfer from Xavier in her first season, had her most points in ACC play and was 4 of 6 from three-point range. Freshman Malina Howard had 16 points on 8-of-12 shooting for Maryland, also her best showing against a league opponent. The Terps feature the ACC's scoring and rebounding leaders in Hawkins and Thomas. Hawkins leads the league in scoring at 19.2 points a game and the two share the ACC rebounding lead at 10.3 a game, although Thomas is credited with one more rebound than her teammate (196 to 195) this season. Maryland had won its past 11 games over the Lady Tigers coming in and made sure it wouldn't get caught napping after its dominating, 85-59, victory over No. 11 North Carolina this past Thursday night. The Terps made six of their first seven shots and built a 13-2 lead that only increased at Littlejohn Coliseum. Rutan was the big reason why, breaking things wide open with three consecutive 3-pointers. Howard's bucket gave Maryland a 36-16 lead and Chloe Pavlech followed with a 3-pointer. And the Terps accomplished the large lead without Thomas, held to one field goal the first 20 minutes. The Lady Tigers had hung tough with fourth-ranked Duke for about 30 minutes before falling 60-46 last Thursday night. This time, they didn't have the height or stamina to stay with Maryland. Clemson went more than 10 minutes without a field goal as the Terps went on a 22-4 run to the finish of the half. The Lady Tigers made only 7 of 27 shots the opening half and were outrebounded 25-9. Maryland started three players up front in Hawkins, Thomas and DeVaughn who are 6-foot-2 or taller - more than Clemson had available for the game. The game was the second of a doubleheader after Clemson's men beat Virginia Tech 77-70 and the school hoped for a solid crowd for the women's game. But just a fraction of the 7,950 who attended the first game stayed for the nightcap.