Maryland’s Jones in way of W.Va.

No. 6-seeded Mountaineers the latest to try to slow No. 3-seeded Terps’ star center

COLLEGE PARK — Before the start of what might be the most impressive season in Maryland women’s basketball history, Brionna Jones scored two points that did not count. This was the summertime. Jenna Staiti remembers it as if it were yesterday.

It was practice, the freshman’s first against the All-America senior center. Staiti Second round considered her options. Jones (Aberdeen) is 6 feet 3 and harder to displace than a well-stocked refrigerator. Staiti is 6-6, tallest on the team by a few inches. She’d averaged over four blocks per game as a senior in high school. Why front the post? Jones, she resolved, would have to score over her.

“She buried me right then and there,” Staiti recalled Friday. Catch, drop step, right-handed layup, like it was nothing. “And I was like: ‘Oh, god. This is going to be a long year.’ ”

Staiti is both cursed and blessed. The bad: She has had to battle Jones almost daily in practice since the fall, a Sisyphean task. The good: They play for the same team. And at this point in the season, with the No. 3 seed Terps (31-2) hosting No. 6 seed West Virginia (24-10) today in the NCAA tournament, a spot in the Sweet 16 on the line, there are probably enough post defenders across the country who have had their days ruined by Jones to form a support group.

Their undoing is familiar to Staiti, the 2016 Gatorade State Player of the Year in