HUNTINGTON, W. Va. - The Terrapin women's basketball team headed to Marshall with the longest active win streak in all of Division 1 basketball, after Florida's men's team lost to Kansas last weekend.
Both defending champions returned all five starters and still feature a host of underclassmen as key players, but the Terps let the comparisons stop there.
Unlike the Kansas men's team, the No. 1-ranked Terps continued their unbeaten streak last night in front of a hostile Marshall crowd with a gutsy 68-49 win - the team's 14th victory in a row.
"Just a tremendous atmosphere, great crowd and tremendous game," coach Brenda Frese said. "I was excited by the way we came out in both halves."
The Terps' usually high-octane offense was contained and held to its lowest output of the season. The team shot just 37.5 percent from the field - a statistic that usually approaches 60 percent.
But with stingy defense and another dominant rebounding performance, the Terps were able to comfortably pull out the win.
"Up until this point … we've been shooting the ball well," Frese said. "It was a different kind of game for us where we needed to find offense in different ways. I thought we did a terrific job on the glass until we found our offense again."
The Terps got off to a strong start as Marissa Coleman scored seven quick points. Coleman had trouble shooting the rest of the game but showed aggressiveness on offense that was missing since she got banged up against TCU two weeks ago.
"My teammates were getting me the ball in the right places," Coleman said. "Shay [Doron] hit me with a couple skip passes when I was wide open, so I was just in the right place at the right time. I've been working on getting into that groove. Recently my shot hasn't been falling, so I was trying to be a little more aggressive today."
Despite the hot start, the Terps could not completely pull away from Marshall early like they have from so many other opponents this season. The Thundering Herd responded and played with an intensity that could have led to an upset.
Nearing the end of the first half, the Herd stopped the Terps on four straight possessions and went on a 7-0 run to bring the crowd to a frenzy and their score within eight of the Terps.
With the momentum shifting in Marshall's direction, Kristi Toliver once again showed that she could hit the big shot.
As nothing clicked on offense for the Terps, Toliver called her own number, nailed a 3-pointer and increased the lead to 11 heading into the break.
"Every time she shot it, it crippled me," Marshall coach Royce Chadwick said of Toliver, who hit four 3-pointers. "She is just big-time."
The Terps were able to maintain their lead by owning the glass, out-rebounding Marshall 53-37. Crystal Langhorne, Jade Perry, Ashleigh Newman and Coleman all had a big night on the boards and gave the Terps second and third opportunities to score when they were struggling to land shots.
"They've been out-rebounding people by 17 and we knew that coming in," Chadwick said. "We worked very diligently blocking out, and we got whipped on the boards. They are very attack-oriented when the shot goes up. They are great rebounders."
In the second half, the Terps turned to Langhorne for offense. The junior forward poured in 15 points in the game to lead what was a subdued, but balanced scoring night for the Terps, who had four players in double digits.
Frustrated by his team's inability to stop the Terps' high scorer, Chadwick called Langhorne the best post player in the country and said the only way the Herd will see a better team this year is if they play a WNBA squad.
In the end, it wasn't the Terps' offense that got them their eighth victory this season. They showed they won't always play to perfection, but their hard-nose attitude will overcome other weaknesses and an intimidating environment.
"People are going to be coming after us even more," Langhorne said. "Everybody probably knows that right now. I don't think we're trying to focus too much on that; we're just trying to win games right now."
Contact reporter Mark Selig at mseligdbk@umd.edu.
Be the first to comment on this article!
Log in to be able to post comments.