Big third quarter carries Terps to win

Meyers, Alexander star in breakout third quarter to finish tournament 2-1

FORT MYERS, Fla. — Abby Meyers scored 12 of her 23 points in Maryland’s 36-point third quarter and the No. 14 Terps rolled to an 87-63 win over Pittsburgh on Sunday to finish the Ft. Myers Tip-Off.

Brinae Alexander hit three 3-pointers in the Terps’ biggest quarter of the season and was 5 of 7 from distance to finish with 17 points. Lavender Briggs contributed 10 points as the three transfers had their biggest outputs of the season for Maryland. Shyanne Sellers added 13 points for the Terps (6-2), who went 2-1 in the tournament.

Maryland went 7 of 10 behind the arc and shot 55% in the second half.

“Super grateful to have played in a tremendous tournament. I thought we were going to learn a lot about our team today playing three games in three days. Just really loved being able to see our toughness and our resiliency,” coach Brenda Frese said. “I thought it started on the defensive end, we were just ready to defend and came out really aggressive. And then on the offensive end, when we’re sharing the basketball like we did today with 21 assists, I thought our offense was really, really easy. We can make it easy for each other. Just love the fact that these two (Meyers and Alexander) and (Briggs) had career highs in a Maryland uniform. And, again, loved to see how easy we made it when we played with each other and for each other.”

Maliyah Johnson had 15 points for the Panthers (5-2), who only had one fewer 3-pointer but were outscored by 13 at the foul line where Maryland was 20 of 23.

Pitt, 1-2 in the tournament, also had 18 turnovers to 14 for Maryland but the Terps turned those into 22 points and the Panthers garnered just five.

Despite going 2 of 11 behind the arc in the first half Maryland took a 33-26 lead as Pitt was just 3 of 10.

“I love our fight. We could have went in two directions after a tough loss against a really good DePaul team,” Frese said. “Just seeing the fight and resiliency from the Towson game to even responding today, I think that bodes well for us in the future.”

Both teams participate in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge, Pitt at home against Illinois Wednesday and Maryland at No. 7 Notre Dame on Thursday.