LATTA, CAROLINA SILENCE TERPS

The Terrapin women's basketball team knew what it was like to come back from a large deficit in a big game against a conference rival.

Unfortunately for the Terps, unlike a couple of games last season, they dug themselves too deep a hole to crawl out of in their 84-71 loss against North Carolina last night.

The Terps looked nothing like the team that usually shoots better than 50 percent, and coupled with 21 turnovers, their offense could not keep up with the Tar Heels' attack. They cut a deficit of 20 points to one with just more than three minutes to play, but that would be the closest the Terps would get.

"I thought our team showed a lot of heart," Frese said. "It took a lot of courage in terms of when we got down by 20 to one of the best teams in the country, to be able to come back and show the heart that they did."

The Terps may have showed a lot of heart by coming back, but what the Tar Heels showed by getting that large lead and then holding off the comeback on the road is that they were the superior team - at least last night.

North Carolina (23-0, 7-0 ACC) put itself on Duke's echelon, while the Terps (21-2, 5-2), after two blowout losses against their two biggest rivals, are now in fourth place in the conference and left to wonder how they suffered double-digit losses to the teams they are supposed to be as good as, if not better.

It will be nearly impossible for the Terps to garner the regular season conference title.

"Losing this early in the grand scheme of things might actually help us a little bit," junior forward Laura Harper said. "This feeling that we have right now in the locker room is just horrendous. And it still is January, we have a good month to prepare. This hurts, and I think it definitely will help us."

The sold-out crowd made Comcast Center as loud as it had been all season approaching the opening tip, and a Shay Doron 3-pointer to kick off the scoring solidified the raucous atmosphere.

But sloppy ball-handling and uncharacteristically poor shooting plagued the Terps throughout the first 20 minutes of play, as they shot just 29.4 percent from the field and had 14 turnovers.

At the end of the half, the Terps tightened the clamps and stopped the Tar Heels on four straight possessions. As the crowd noise grew and the deficit shrunk, a technical foul called on coach Brenda Frese halted the positive momentum.

As Kristi Toliver collected a rebound and prepared to lead the Terps down court, Frese jumped up and down on the court and berated the referee closest to the bench as she thought Toliver was fouled while grabbing a rebound.

Ivory Latta connected on the ensuing free-throws resulting from the technical, and sent her team into the break eight points ahead. Frese declined to comment on the technical foul.

In the second half it was the same story for Latta and the Tar Heels. The senior guard knocked down four 3-pointers in the first five minutes of the second half. With a 20-point lead, it appeared the Tar Heels would go home with an easy victory.

But the Terps would not quit and neither would their fans. Shay Doron assumed leadership and hit three consecutive baskets to chip into the lead. Not only did she heat up on offense, but she also asked Frese if she could defend Latta, and Doron temporarily cooled down the hot Tar Heel guard.

"I was just trying to keep everyone's heads up, and keep in the game," Doron said. "There was a lot of time on the clock. We knew we had to play better eventually, we just played so bad the first half. I was trying to do anything I could possibly do to give some energy, get some scores, gets some stops."

With momentum heavily in the Terps' corner, Erlana Larkins, Latta and Camille Little hit consecutive hoops, and the Tar Heels never looked back. Latta completed her perfect 8-for-8 night from the free-throw line and finished with 32 points in a statement road win for the second-ranked and still undefeated Tar Heels.

"Playing against Duke, playing against Carolina, revenge factor is so, so big right there," Harper said. "They come ready, and they are so focused when they come to play us. In order to beat teams like that, we have to come even more prepared then we thought because they have that revenge factor."

The star of the night, Latta, said revenge was not an issue, however. All the Tar Heels craved was a victory.

"We just came out and played hard, and our main thing was to be focused for a whole 40 minutes," Latta said. "We let down in the second half when they made that run. It was nothing personal at all; we just came out with a big win."

Contact reporter Mark Selig at mseligdbk@gmail.com.