By: Nolan DeMott
On Sunday afternoon, the undefeated University of Maryland (College Park) Terrapins took on the University of Maryland (Baltimore County) Retrievers (2-4). The Terrapins just came off of a hard fought road win vs. no. 7 Louisville, but today would not be nearly as competitive. The Terps destroyed the Retrievers 92-42. The Terps had not played a game in front of the XFINITY Center crowd since November 18, which made it all the more satisfying to return home with a big win. Following the game, head coach Brenda Frese addressed both this sentiment behind returning home as well as her team’s performance:
“After four road games, it’s great to be able to come home in front of our tremendous fans and continue to play extremely well,” Frese said. “I thought our starters set the tone early for us, and then I thought we were able to really extend with our depth. [I] always love seeing the stat line with really positive assist to turnover ratio [with] 29 assists. Every player [is] scoring and [we are] being unselfish as a team.”
The Terrapins came out in the first quarter on fire from three-point range, hitting all four of their attempts in the quarter. In fact, overall, today was the Terps’ strongest shooting performance, as they shot just under 50% from the field. To this, Frese replied that their success had a lot to do with the team’s versatility on the floor and its pass-first mentality.
“When people game plan against us, they can’t find a weakness, and I thought we really shared the basketball and made the extra pass today to be able to go from a good shot to a great shot,” said Frese.
Therefore, after one quarter, the Terps held a comfortable lead of 24-9.
In the second quarter, the Terrapins continued their shooting dominance, which was, in part, led by Junior Kristen Confroy, who has otherwise struggled to find her stroke early in the season. Confroy, after the game, spoke in regards to finally getting her shot to fall.
“Being a shooter, you just have to keep trusting the process,” Confroy said. ” [With] every shot I’ve taken, it feels like it’s going in, and early in the year it just wasn’t…Obviously, it was great to see the ball go in a couple times.”
Confroy finished 5-7 from three in total, helping the Terrapins go into the locker room at the half with a 42-17 lead.
Up by 25, the Terrapins only ended up extending their lead as the game moved forward in the second half. They followed up their first half performance with an equally consistent second half, going on to double that lead to 50. Frese was very satisfied the performance and emphasized how impressive her team’s attitude and focus was coming into the game despite having defeated a much stronger Louisville team a few nights before.
“After the Louisville game…we came out in our practice yesterday really hungry and had a really good, solid practice [and] competed even though we were fatigued,” Frese said. “I thought we were still pretty fatigued today, but I thought we fought hard, did not play the score, and tried to get better.”
With the win the Terrapins now improve to 8-0 on the season and will face Towson this Tuesday night right back at the XFINITY Center.
