Rollin' through the ACC

Maryland has been enjoying their winter break. They've gone 5-0 to start their ACC stretch, including three road wins and a home win over 12th-ranked Duke.

Crystal Langhorne is averaging a double-double per game in ACC play, with 18.8 points and 11.8 rebounds per contest. Kristi Toliver has been the leading scorer in ACC play with 19.4 points and 7.2 assists per game.

Maryland's contest vs. Duke was considered by many to be the loudest they had ever heard the Comcast Center at a women's basketball game. Now keep in mind this was a 4th-ranked Maryland vs. a 12th-ranked Duke. There have been bigger matchups rankings-wise in the Comcast Center in the last two seasons, including 2-UNC vs. 3-MD and 1-Duke vs. 6-MD last season, and earlier this season 3-MD vs. 4-LSU to end out the Preseason WNIT. It was Duke, and a close game, but with classes out of session and on a Monday evening, it is certainly suprising. Duke guard Abby Waner even said about the fans that "They are enthusiastic, not exactly the sweethearts of the country, but I'd like to have them as my fans. I think they are a great sixth man for Maryland."

Coming up, Maryland has two of their toughest ACC challenges coming up, starting with the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets.

Georgia Tech (16-2, 3-1 ACC) may not have a big win, but they don't have a bad loss either, losing road games to Georgia and North Carolina. Last year, they reached the round of 32 in the NCAA Tournament and upset Maryland in a 77-72 victory in Atlanta during the regular season. The Yellow Jackets play a 3-guard, 2-forward offense led up front by senior forward Janie Mitchell (16.9 ppg, 6.8 rpg) and senior guard Chioma Nnamaka (16.1 ppg). Look for the 6'4'' Laura Harper to be a big part of this game; no one in Georgia Tech's starting five is over 6'1''.

Listen in to today's game, pregame at 1:40, game at 2:00, live from the Comcast Center on wmucsports.com!

A New Year is Upon Us

First of all, a very happy and healthy new year to you and yours. Hope you're as excited as I am for 2008, and hope you're enjoying your January 1, whether you're spending it with family, alone in disbelief that you actually had that much to drink, or (like me) with a comfortable spot picked out on the couch to watch the 30 million bowl games that are on today.

Thursday marks the start of ACC play for the Terps. They closed out the non-conference slate with a bang, throttling UMBC and Richmond in the Terrapin Classic. Admittedly, there were some great individual performances by the Terps' opponents, but this past weekend was essentially an exhibition for the team. They weren't ever truly challenged, and frankly, the final scores showed that. I don't think anyone seriously expected any sort of a test.

Wake Forest will be an interesting start to the ACC season for Maryland. Which Wake team will show up? Will it be the one that pulled off nice wins against Texas A&M and Indiana en route to a tournament victory in the Virgin Islands in the Paradise Jam? Or will it be the Wake team that sandwiched that tournament victory with losses at James Madison and at home to Radford? If it's the former, Maryland is possibly in for one heck of a fight. If it's the latter, this game might be over by halftime.

That's not to say that Maryland's performance is completely dependent on how their opponent plays Thursday. Undoubtedly, the four worst games (or, at best, four of the five worst) the Terps have played so far have been true road games - a loss at Rutgers, a rocky road trip against UC Santa Barbara and UCLA, and a scare at James Madison. Plain and simple, Maryland needs to play well on Thursday to establish that they've got a strong road presence. They can't afford to head into the conference slate being uncertain of how they can play outside of Comcast.

So how will things play out? You'll have to wait and see. Norm Carter and I will be on WMUCSports.com live from Winston-Salem, NC, at 6:40 PM on Thursday, getting you ready for a 7:00 tip. Be sure to listen in!

Terps Survive Toliver's Homecoming, defeating JMU 71-65

James Madison gave Maryland quite the holiday scare. But the Terps survived, barely.

Maryland came into this game 13-1 and on 12 days rest after playing all 14 of their games in a span of 31 days. As John Willmott said, they were probably some of the few people who looked forward to finals because it meant they could rest and not play basketball. The James Madison Dukes, a 9-seed in the NCAA tournament last year, entered with a record of 6-2 having won their last 30 games in the Convo, at the time an NCAA record for games won at home in a row.

Kristi Toliver came back to her hometown of Harrisonburg, Virginia to a loud 5,000 person crowd in the Convo and was hit with taunts of "Traitor" by the courtside student section and a "Go Home Kristi" sign from the band but was given a loud ovation by the crowd when introduced in the starting lineup. The crowd was very active through most of the night and sometimes threw Maryland off their game.

The first half started out poorly for the Terps. Despite starting on a 6-0 run, Toliver quickly received two fouls which affected the flow of the offense, putting Marissa Coleman (who shot 2-11 in the half) on the point. JMU countered with an 11-0 run and at one point led by nine. Maryland got their offense together thanks to good shooting down low from Crystal Langhorne and Laura Harper and tied the game 33-33 at the half. Despite not getting a three and having quite a few fouls from guards, Maryland could look forward to having Toliver back in the second half.

JMU came out quickly in the second half with a 7-0 run. Tamara Young was playing very well, hitting key shots, drawing fouls, and ending with 28 points. The Terps did eventually regain the lead, but with nine minutes left, the Dukes were up by 10 points and looked like they had the game. Toliver was still struggling, and James Madison was clicking on all cylinders. Maryland then came alive, led by Toliver, Coleman, and Harper, climbing back to take the lead with 3:40 left. Great defense by the Terps kept the Dukes to only two points in the last four minutes, and Maryland was able to pull away in the final minute. A real scare, but the Terps improved to 14-1 on the season.

Harper was on fire in the front court, nearly scoring a double-double with 24 points (8-10 from the field) and nine rebounds. She also hit 8-10 free throws.

Langhorne surpassed the 1,000 rebound mark with a double-double of 11 points and 11 rebounds.

Despite a bad first half, Coleman came on strong in the second half with a double-double of 19 points and 11 rebounds.

Although this game was a scare, the Terps showed a lot of heart in this game. Maryland was down by nine and ten in times during the game and had to deal with an intense JMU crowd, but they pulled it out.

Maryland will have some questions from this game. The Terrapin offense didn't look fluid without Toliver, and the bench still isn't much of a factor in games. But for now, things are going well in College Park.

Maryland will come home for the Terrapin Classic, hosting Richmond and UMBC on the 29th and 30th respectively. Tipoff is at 2:00 PM for each game, tune in the wmucsports.com for the action.

From all us on the women's basketball crew and WMUC, we wish you all a happy holiday.

Terps Take Down Temple 64-46

Not exactly the most efficient game, but a win is a win. After playing 14 games in a month, Maryland will get a much needed 11-day rest. By that time the stomach virus should be completely gone through the Maryland system. Ever since the Rutgers game, the Terps just haven’t looked like themselves, most likely a combination of fatigue and sickness. But they are on a three-game win streak, improving to 13-1 after the 64-46 win over Temple.

Maryland looked like the much quicker and energetic team. Temple had trouble keeping up with Maryland’s driving down the court and kept fouling. Maryland shot decently, but allowed Temple to shoot 17 more times, but thanks to Temple’s very aggressive play, the Terps got 24 points off free throws. Temple held in there for a little while, but poor shooting gave them their fourth loss to ACC teams this season.

For the second time in three games, Kristi Toliver’s play in the second half drove the Terps to victory. She scored 15 points with four assists and only one turnover in the final 20 minutes, eventually ending with a double-double with 15 points and 11 assists. She also got four free throws in a row after a personal foul and technical foul called on Owl head coach Dawn Staley.

Crystal Langhorne also looks like she is back to form. She led during the first half with 10 points and two blocks. She has been the physical presence in the paint that the Terps have needed in the last few games.

Maryland didn’t see much from the bench, as only three players came off to the court. Combined Newman, Perry, and Mingo got six points, seven rebounds, and four steals. Thankfully for Maryland, the starters did enough to win the game, but the lack of scoring from the bench could prove to be a problem against the ACC.

It is final exams time around College Park, and as Coach Frese said after the game: "They have earned a well-deserved break, so we're going to get away from each other. We're going to allow them to be students because I don't think the schedule has been very kind to allow them to be students first."

The Terps are off until December 20th, where they will take on the James Madison Dukes in Harrisonburg, Virginia. Tipoff is at 7:00 p.m., tune in to wmucsports.com for all the action!

From Cats to Birds

The No. 3-ranked Maryland women's basketball team welcomes the Temple Owls to Comcast Center Sunday afternoon at 2 o'clock. Temple comes to town sporting a 4-5 record; winning their last contest 74-34 over Kent State. Dawn Staley, who is in her 8th year as head coach, has led the Owls to four Atlantic-10 championships. The latest came in the 2006 season. These two teams met last year in Philadelphia, with Temple giving the Terps all they could handle. Maryland came out victorious 77-66 as Laura Harper led the way with 17 points.

In that game, Temple used an 18-1 run to take a 62-58 lead with just 5:38 left to play. Good news for the Terps is that the player who sparked the rally for Temple, Kamesha Hairston, has graduated to the WNBA. Senior guard Ashley Morris, who did not score in last year's contest, currently leads the Owls in scoring with 17 points per game. Another face Maryland will have to deal with is Lady Comfort, as the 6-foot 2-inch senior is almost averaging a double-double for the season with 11 points and nine rebounds a contest.

The Owls were able to force 21 Terrapin turnovers in the December '06 match-up and will undoubtedly be looking to do some of the same things that caused headaches for the then-No. 1 team in the country. Temple will not be able to win at Comcast Center by out-shooting the Terps, as they only shoot 41-percent from the field and average just over 60 points per game. In stark contrast, Maryland shoots at just over 50-percent with a 79.8 points per game average.

Maryland will be coming in sky high off of their demolition of the Northern Iowa Panthers 91-37 on Friday night. Five Terrapins logged double-digit point efforts as Marissa Coleman (22 points & 12 rebounds) and Harper (10 points & 11 rebounds) chalked up double-doubles. Kristi Toliver had an "off-day" in comparison to her normal "Agent Two-Zero" standards with 12 points and seven assists. Toliver did become just the ninth player in school history to accumulate at least 400 assists for a career.

A couple more milestones were reached in Friday's drubbing; Coleman moved into top 20 all-time in Terrapin scoring with 1,167 points and Ashleigh Newman played in her 117th consecutive game in a Maryland uniform. Maryland's win, which featured a margin of 54 points, was the biggest win of the season, and largest since a 55-point victory at Loyola last December.

Sunday's game will end a stretch of 14 games in 31 days, as the Terps will not play again until December 20 when they visit James Madison in a homecoming game for Toliver. Toliver played at Harrisonburg (VA) High School in the shadow of JMU. The upcoming rest is going to be greatly deserved as the team has battled sickness and numerous top-flight opponents en route to a 12-1 record.

The action begins with a 2 o'clock tipoff at Comcast Center Sunday afternoon. We will have the pregame show starting at 1:40 on WMUCsports.com. The Terps look to improve to 13-1, while Temple looks for a signature win to jump-start their season.

Bouncing Back

After Monday's tough loss at Rutgers, the Terrapin women's basketball team plays host to the Middle Tennessee State Blue Raiders tonight at Comcast Center. If you remember, last year the Terps opened the season with a nail-biting win in Murfeesboro against Middle. This time they hope for no drama.

Monday's first loss of the season may be a bit of a reality check for the team, who had previously reeled off 10-straight victories. The Scarlet Knights proved to the Terps and the country that there are other teams to be reckoned with. There is no reason for Maryland to hang their collective head though because they lost to a very strong team.

Crystal Langhorne became the all-time leading rebounder in Maryland history during the game, passing Vicky Bullett. Langhorne is also on pace to become the all-time leading scorer which is held by Bullett. Kristi Toliver became the third Terrapin this season to score her 1,000th point. There is no question though that these players have only one thing on their mind and that is to come back tonight with a strong victory.

Tonight's game is the second game in a stretch of four games in seven days, so the Terps have to avoid any type of lull. Tipoff is at 7 o'clock on WMUCsports.com, so don't miss it!