Terps move to 10-0, tune up for Big Ten
Frese sees plenty for team to work on before final nonconference game
COLLEGE PARK — Brenda Frese wasn’t wearing one of her custom red suits Monday, but the Maryland women’s basketball coach is keeping a list this time of year.
“It’s pretty long,” Frese said with a grin. “Our staff has been building that thing to be ready — you know, this is the first time we get about seven, eight days to work.”
The No. 6 Terps handily defeated Loyola Maryland, 83-48, on Monday in an 11 a.m. game in which elementary and middle-schoolers on field trips made up the bulk of the announced 9,736 in attendance, the largest crowd of the season at Xfinity Center. It was Maryland’s fourth victory this season by 30 or more points, and with a Dec. 20 trip to Delaware looming as their final noncon- ference game this season, the No. 7 Terps (10-0) will settle in at College Park to fine-tune.
Big Ten play starts Dec. 28 at Penn State.
At the top of Frese’s list are things Maryland hasn’t had to bother much with during the nonconference schedule, such as knowing how to break a press. Perhaps the most effective full-court press the Terps have seen this year came in a mid-November game against then-No. 10 South Carolina.
Monday’s victory revealed a few other blemishes, as well.
Loyola (0-10) made just 16 of 54 shots from the field (29.6 percent), but 12 of 27
3-point attempts (44.4 percent). Only Dayton, with 13, made more 3pointers against the Terps this season. The Greyhounds’ leading scorers Delaney Connolly (17 points) and Alexis Gray (15 points) had five 3s each, a career-high for Connolly and a season high for Gray.
Much of that success on the perimeter was because Loyola couldn’t get any offense going inside, as the considerably lengthier Terps outscored them 54-4 in the paint. But Frese was unhappy with her team’s 3-point defense nonetheless.
“Forty-four percent from [3], that’s not a good statistic, one we talked about at halftime,” Frese said. “From their end, that was their game plan, to put up as many threes as they could, because they had not shot 27 3s in a game yet compared to today. That’s why I say [these games] keep you humble and hungry. We’re still looking to put a complete, 40-minute game together.”
On offense, Maryland put together another balanced effort. The Terps nudged in front of Loyola early and pulled away halfway through the first quarter with a full-court press of their own that led to a 17-0 burst that carried into the second quarter. Freshman Taylor Mikesell led four scorers in double figures with 19 points, matching her season high of five 3-pointers on seven attempts.
The rest of the Terps’ scoring power came mainly from the frontcourt, where junior forward Stephanie Jones (Aberdeen) put up 13 points and Kaila Charles added 12.
Freshman center Shakira Austin had 17 points and a team-high 13 rebounds for her fourth double double of the season. She entered the game ranked 10th in the country with 105 rebounds this season and helped the Terps edge Loyola 38-28 on the boards.
“11 a.m. tip, I wanted to make sure we were awake,” Frese said, of implementing the press. “We started kind of slow; they milked the shot clock, which was a smart thing to be able to do. It just kind of took us a little while in that first quarter to keep us going. Something we want to be able to go to is our press, and being able to work on it was a positive thing for us today.”
The win capped Maryland’s third 10-0 start in four years. But the Terps know their success so far this season does nothing to lessen the amount of work they’ll have during the nine-day stretch between games.
“I’m looking forward to it,” Jones said. “It’s going to be able to give us time to work on things that we may have seen as weaknesses in our last few games, so I’m looking forward to it.”