Terrapins click on all cylinders

Maryland women's basketball

By: Noah Gross

The fourth ranked Maryland Women’s Basketball team played a beautiful game of basketball on Tuesday night, as they handily defeated the Towson Tigers in the XFINITY Center 97-63.

Brionna Jones was the star of the game for the Terps, pouring in 19 points on 7-12 shooting from the field.  She was especially dominant in the second quarter, when she scored 12 points, and was selfless postgame saying, “It is a credit to my teammates finding me when I was open.”

Coach Brenda Frese had a lot of reasons to be proud of her team, as the Lady Terps were dominant.  A lot of role players were in the game late, but the one that made the biggest impact was Blair Watson, and Frese took notice.

“Blair was terrific tonight,” Frese said.  “[She] really gave us a tremendous addition defensively in really making a lot of plays we know she is capable of.”

Shatori Walker-Kimbrough had another great game, scoring 19 points in just 18 minutes.  She only had to play that much because Maryland was up by a lot of points, and the starters were able to rest, but she was just fine with not playing all that much.

“It is more about the bigger picture,” said Walker-Kimbrough.  “We got a lot of new players on the team, so we are trying to get the chemistry rolling.”

The play of the game came in the second quarter when Destiny Slocum showed why she is getting rave reviews already.  She jumped to steal a pass, then threw the ball behind-the-back to save it from going out of bounds perfectly into the waiting arms of Shatori Walker-Kimbrough for an easy layup.  That play stands out for Kimbrough.

“Right before that, coach had gotten on us how we came out flat,” said Walker-Kimbrough.  “I think that was kind of the turning point, that play right there.”

The scoring was very balanced on Tuesday with five players for Maryland scoring in double digits.  One of those players was Kristen Confroy, who went 3-4 from beyond-the-arc.  Confroy, after a slow start to the year, has picked it up as of late, and how shown how dynamic this team can be.

Rebounding again was another big advantage for the Terps, as they won that battle 46-28.  Twenty of those rebounds were offensive for Maryland, and those often led to easy opportunities.

Maryland will have a day off tomorrow before returning to the XFINITY Center for a battle against Saint Peter’s at 6:30 PM.