Women's basketball finally cashes in on free throws

The five-week break between the fall and spring semesters offers most students a chance to relax and recharge after final exams.

But as their classmates relished the opportunity to break free from the day-to-day routine of the classroom this winter, the Terrapin women's basketball team focused its efforts on a new monotony: free-throw shooting.

With a roster full of long and fast athletes, barrages of fast breaks and offensive rebounds for the No. 12 Terps have at times seemed endless.

As a result, so have their trips to the charity stripe.

The Terps have lined up at their familiar spot on the free-throw line 511 times this season, the eighth most attempts nationwide among schools in traditional power conferences.

But for much of the year, their results were largely inconsistent. The Terps shot 75 percent at then-No. 13 Georgetown in their second game of the season, then dropped to 50 percent on Dec. 7 against Loyola.

As coach Brenda Frese looked ahead to the team's trying ACC schedule, she knew something needed to be done about the Terps' shooting woes.

With a more open schedule afforded by winter break, Frese conceded that the team "really felt like we needed to improve on our free-throw shooting."

So they did. During the five-week stretch when basketball became the team's primary focus, Frese required each player to hit 75 free throws on every non-game day.

And while the results weren't always as Frese had hoped — the team hit rock bottom with a 42.9 percent mark in an ugly home loss to Boston College on Jan. 13 — the Terps appear to have turned a corner.

During their current five-game winning streak, the Terps have shot 77 percent from the free-throw line. In a Jan. 23 drubbing of then-No. 10 North Carolina, the Terps hit 92 percent of their free throws.

"It's showing in the box score," center Lynetta Kizer said after the Terps' win over Longwood on Sunday, a game in which the Terps hit 91 percent of their first-half free throws to help establish control. "We're putting in the work, and it's paying off in the game."

The issue now becomes one of maintenance for the Terps. While Frese has continued to build more shooting into her practices, the team no longer has enough time to devote the same kind of attention to free-throw shooting it had gotten used to.

"Now that we're in school, we've modified," Frese said. "They don't have as much time in their schedule, so we've tried to make it into practice as many days as we can. We've been able to keep it up, and we hope to continue."

The Terps are now entering a pivotal stretch in their ACC slate. In their next six games, they will play four nationally ranked opponents on the road and welcome No. 3 Duke — the lone Division I team without a loss — to Comcast Center.

With such a grueling series of games, the Terps realize the difference between extending or ending their winning streak could come at the free-throw line.

"We know and understand the schedule that we have left, with the road games, how valuable free-throw shooting is," Frese said. "I know this team recognizes how important it is. We just hope we can continue that work ethic while they're back in school and juggling everything."

cwalsh@umdbk.com