Watson, Austin help No. 9 Maryland rout Clemson

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) Blair Watson scored 19 points and Shakira Austin scored 17 points as ninth-ranked Maryland won its fifth straight, cruising to a 63-44 victory over Clemson on Friday at the Daytona Invitational.

Austin connected on six of her first seven shots as the Terrapins (6-1) stormed out to a 32-8 lead on Kaila Charles' lay-up with 2:54 remaining in the first half.

Clemson (2-5) closed out the first half with a 9-2 run and got to within 34-22 in the third quarter on Kendall Spray's 3-pointer. Maryland once again responded with its defense, holding the Tigers scoreless the next four minutes to push its lead to 41-23 with 4:08 remaining in the third quarter on two Charles free throws.

The Tigers did get the deficit to single digits on Shania Mertins' lay-up with 9:37 remaining that cut it to 46-37.

Watson took over the game after that, hitting four 3-pointers on a 16-0 run that gave Maryland its largest lead of the night, 62-37, with 3:10 remaining.

Amari Wall led Clemson with 14 points. While Spray added 11.

THE BIG PICTURE:

MARYLAND: Austin, a sophomore has been on a role for the Terrapins ever since leading a come-from-behind victory over James Madison. She's scored double-figures each game during this win streak and basically took over the game both in the post and the open court in Maryland's aggressive defense.

CLEMSON: The Tigers' non-conference schedule has also included No. 5 South Carolina and Penn State and has Iowa before the ACC opener against Florida State. The Tigers came into this game averaging 22 turnovers.

UP NEXT:

Maryland will face Belmont on Saturday.

Clemson will meet Alcorn State on Saturday.