espnW Women's Basketball

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- Alexa Deluzio was happy to get another chance in her final home game.

The fifth-year senior hit a second-chance free throw with 7 seconds left to lift No. 24 Florida State to a 72-71 win over ninth-ranked Maryland on Thursday night.

Deluzio had just missed a pair but got a chance to win it after Maryland was whistled for a lane violation on her second free throw.

"Thanks for the lane violation. I got another attempt at it and then I knocked it down," said Deluzio, who added that the violation did disturb her on the second attempt. "Beating a top 10 team on your senior night, it can't really get much better."

Her jumper with 2 minutes left -- Florida State's only field goal in the final 6:27 -- gave the Seminoles a brief 67-59 cushion that quickly evaporated.

It was Florida State's first win over a top 10 team in more than four years. They defeated then-No.8 North Carolina on Feb. 13, 2009.

Florida State led 64-47 with 4:31 to go before the Terrapins stormed back with a 24-7 run to tie it at 71 on Chloe Pavelich's 3-pointer with 10 seconds left. Seminoles coach Sue Semrau called it "quite a run."

"I guess we decided we had nothing to lose," Maryland coach Brenda Frese said. "We got a lot more aggressive defensively."

Chelsea Davis had 19 points to lead a balanced scoring effort, and the Seminoles (21-7, 11-6 Atlantic Coast Conference) locked up the No. 4 seed and an opening round bye in the ACC tournament. Leonor Rodriguez finished with 16 points, Deluzio had 14 and Nasha Howard 11 for FSU.

Katie Rutan made 6 of 10 from 3-point range and had a season-high 24 points for Maryland. Alyssa Thomas added 17 and Tianna Hawkins 16 for the Terps (22-6, 13-4), who are battling with North Carolina for the No. 3 seed.

Thomas also had 14 rebounds to help the Terps to a 43-29 advantage on the boards, but she also contributed eight of Maryland's 21 turnovers with Deluzio often the defender.

"Lex did a tremendous job when we went man on her," Semrau said.

The difference came at the free throw line, where the Seminoles connected on 20 of 29 -- with Davis going 9 of 14. Maryland made only seven of its 16 free throws.

Maryland took 20 more shots than FSU but hit just 40.6 percent compared to Florida State's 49 percent.

Florida State went nearly 6½ minutes and trailed 8-0 before getting its first basket on a reverse layup by Davis. The Seminoles missed their first eight shots and had four turnovers by the time they scored with 13:37 left in the opening half.

Davis hit another layup to give the Seminoles their first lead -- 16-15 -- with 7:55 left in the half. She made four of five shots in the first half for the otherwise cold-shooting Seminoles.

Cheetah Delgado's layup completed a 15-2 run that gave the Seminoles their biggest lead of the opening half at 21-16.

Florida State had lost three of its previous four games, while Maryland was trying to bounce back from a 75-59 loss to No. 5 Duke. The Terps beat the Seminoles 74-61 in the season's first meeting Jan. 6.

FSU and Maryland both close the regular season Sunday. The Seminoles are at Virginia and Maryland hosts Wake Forest.