Local showdown pits women's basketball against surging Hoyas

Before last season, Georgetown had long stood in the shadows of the Terrapin women's basketball team, both locally and nationally.

As the Hoyas floundered throughout the decade, the Terps, nearly half an hour down the road, flourished under coach Brenda Frese, emerging as perennial contenders for ACC titles and national championships.

But the 2009-10 season marked what some saw as a local power shift between the two, with the Hoyas celebrating their first NCAA Tournament appearance in 17 years. The Terps, meanwhile, sputtered en route to their first absence from the sport's Big Dance in seven seasons.

When the No. 21 Terps travel to McDonough Arena to battle the No. 13 Hoyas tonight, they'll be seeking to reassert their spot atop the local pecking order against a team that has followed a similar path to prominence.

Hoya coach Terri Williams-Flournoy has ratcheted up her recruitment of talent from the Terps' traditional stomping grounds of Maryland, Virginia and New Jersey over the past several seasons, landing several highly touted recruits to help trigger the program's rebound.

Williams-Flournoy's most notable pledge was sophomore guard Sugar Rodgers. The Suffolk, Va., native led the Hoyas in scoring as a freshman last season and earned first-team All-Big East and honorable mention All-America honors.

"I think Terri has done a tremendous job in rebuilding that program, and she's done it with recruiting," Frese said. "It's a lot of players we've seen in the process. There's a lot of familiar faces."

Even as Williams-Flournoy has begun to stockpile talent and transform the Hoyas into a team picked to finish third in the powerful Big East, Frese has in no way slowed down.

This season's freshman class is perhaps the best that Frese has brought to College Park in her nine years on the bench for the Terps. And given the plethora of talent in the Washington area, Frese said it's plausible that the teams could coexist as regional powers.

"It's exciting for the game, and especially in our area, where there's so many great options," Frese said of the local talent. "It says a lot for our sport that we can have two great programs play each other in a nonconference slate by [just getting on a bus]."

While tonight's matchup may mark the start of a competitive regional rivalry that has long eluded the Terps — the two teams have already agreed to square off again at Comcast Center next season — its significance as a measuring stick for both could be of greater importance.

Both teams are young, with talented Georgetown guard Monica McNutt standing alone as the only senior on either roster. And both are fast and prefer an up-tempo style of play, characteristics that neither side has seen in an opponent this early in the season.

The game has particular significance for the Terps, who have gotten ample contributions from a highly touted recruiting class that has never played together outside the comforts of Comcast Center. A road debut at McDonough Arena could be particularly jarring, even for talented freshmen such as Alyssa Thomas and Laurin Mincy.

"We want to see how we compete when we go on the road," Frese said. "Can we go out in this hostile environment and play to the best of our abilities?"

Tonight's game won't pose the same problems of life on the road that the Terps' first true test last season did. The Terps were dismantled at No. 25 Mississippi State in their fourth game of the year, marking the start of road woes that lasted throughout the season.

And while tonight's game gives the Terps their first chance to establish themselves on the road this season, it could also serve as something greater: an opportunity to further prove themselves as the top dog in the Washington area.

"We're looking forward to seeing how we match up," Frese said. "We know each other's players. In the overall scheme of it, I don't think it's a game that's going to make or break either team's season. But it's a fun crosstown rivalry game."

cwalsh@umdbk.com