Terps return to form with blowout

Terrapin women's basketball fans hadn't seen Emery Wallace on the court in a while.

The redshirt freshman forward is usually the last Terp off the bench, and since the Terps had been having trouble pulling away from their opponents recently, Wallace had only played once in the Terps' previous eight games going into last night's 78-51 drubbing of Boston College.

So when freshman guard Marah Strickland made the last three of her career-high 20 points on a lay-up and free throw to give the Terps a 31-point lead early in the second half, the rout was on. And the "We Want Wallace" chants began.

Wallace eventually checked into the game with 6:05 remaining, with all five of the Terps' subs on the floor. The win served as a much-needed confidence boost for the No. 4 Terps as they head down the home stretch of the regular season.

"It's extremely important," coach Brenda Frese said. "With what we have remaining in conference play, we wanted to really start completing games and playing hard for 40 minutes. To be able to have the defensive intensity that we had transfer to our offense is really what we're looking for."

Strickland's five-for-five figures shooting from behind the arc paced the offense for the Terps, who shot 50 percent from three-point range.

Defensively, the Terps played much more efficiently than against Virginia Tech and Virginia, their two previous games, and did not commit a foul in the second half.

"That happened?" senior forward Laura Harper asked when told of the stat.

As they have in most games recently, the Terps started slowly yet again. But this time they were able to pick things up more quickly than they had the past few times out.

After quickly falling behind 7-2, the Terps went on a 10-0 run driven by threes from Strickland and junior guard Kristi Toliver, and they would not trail again for the rest of the game.

The Terps led 45-28 at halftime, and Strickland opened the second half with her fifth three of the game, sparking a 16-2 run that put the game out of reach, culminating with Strickland's three-point play that started the chants for Wallace.

"The ball was just moving so well today," Strickland said. "Everybody was being so unselfish. It was going [inside], it was going [outside] - it was just great ball movement."

Senior guard Ashleigh Newman also played her best game in a while for the Terps, finishing with 15 points and shooting 3-for-6 from three-point range.

"I'm very competitive and I want those shots to go down and they weren't falling for me," Newman said. "I've been working with people on my shot, and just the technique things, and I knew it was going to fall eventually."

While the Terps' offensive attack started on the perimeter, the key to their defense was in the post.

The Terps did a much better job against Eagles center Carolyn Swords, who scored 28 points and grabbed 13 rebounds against them when the teams met in Chestnut Hill, Mass., Jan. 10.

Guarded mostly by Harper and senior forward Jade Perry, Swords was held to 10 points and eight rebounds, and she scored just two points in the first half, when the game was still relatively close.

"Coming off the last Boston College game, we really took it personal as post players," Harper said. "Everyone knew what kind of game Swords had last time, and we've been working for the past couple days, and that was our main goal."

With her rejection of a shot by Eagles junior guard Brittanny Johnson early in the first half, Harper broke the Terps' career blocked shots record, eclipsing former Terp Kris Kirchner's previous record of 186.

Harper's is the latest significant program record to be broken this season, as the scoring, rebounding and 3-pointers made records, among others, have already been passed by current Terps. But last night against the Eagles, the story was the complete team effort.

"We need to continue to build that depth and have that spark," Frese said. "That's what we need to have. To be a successful team, we need everyone."

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