When Purdue guard Brittney Rayburn hit the second of two free throws to put the Boilermakers up by 11 points with just more than five minutes to play last night, it seemed any shot at victory was rapidly slipping out of the grasp of the Terrapin women's basketball team.
Rayburn's free throw capped a 9-2 run for the hosts inside Mackey Arena, and the resulting 11-point lead was the largest either team would hold all game.
But just when the Terps seemed all but certain to add a loss to the ACC's tally in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge, they found their rhythm and ended the game with a 14-2 run to stun the Boilermakers, 56-55.
The No. 22 Terps (6-1) had struggled throughout the second half after a back-and-forth opening 20 minutes during which neither team led by more than six points. For an eight-minute stretch in the second half, the Terps made just two field goals.
Boilermaker freshman guard Courtney Moses, meanwhile, was slicing the Terp defense apart, going 3-for-3 from behind the arc and adding a game-high five assists to help extend Purdue's lead.
But the Boilermakers couldn't put the Terps away, and the starting trio of center Lynetta Kizer and forwards Diandra Tchatchouang and Alyssa Thomas, who scored the eventual game-winning layup with 52 seconds remaining, soon took advantage of a fatigued Purdue squad to engineer the thrilling comeback.
The three combined for all 14 points in the final five minutes, finishing with nearly 80 percent of the team's scoring. Thomas and Kizer also helped the Terps continue to dominate the paint, finishing with nine and eight rebounds, respectively, as the Terps outrebounded Purdue, 40-27.
Playing for the first time since forward Drey Mingo — a former Terp who transferred after the 2008-09 season — was hospitalized with bacterial meningitis Nov. 23, the Boilermakers seemed bolstered by their crowd's energy and excitement over Mingo's appearance at the game. Even without Mingo in action, the Boilermakers (4-1) ably matched the Terps' up-tempo pace for much of the game and forced 27 turnovers.
But in the end, the Terps' depth took over. Over the final five minutes, the Terps thrived in transition, and when the Boilermakers sent the Terps to the free-throw line, the team went 6-for-7 to help seal the comeback.
With the win, the Terps are now 4-0 all-time in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge. The team had previously beaten Purdue in West Lafeyette, Ind., in 2008.
cwalsh@umdbk.com
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