Unflappable!

Most teams these days don't bring their mascots on the road; indeed, the BasketCases can't recall the last time we saw an opponent's mascot at the Comcast Center for a non-tournament game. So we were pleasantly surprised this afternoon when the St. Joe's Hawk fluttered out onto the court during warmups. Why? Because the Hawk's appearance gave us the chance to do an empirical study of something we'd heard . . . that the St. Joe's Hawk flaps (at least one wing, in most cases, both) during the ENTIRE game! That includes warm-ups, introductions, time outs -- every moment of the game, whether the clock is running or not. Could this really be true? Well, as excited as we were about the game, the BCs were also excited to see this for ourselves!

So for the duration of today's match-up of the Terps against St. Joe's, one of us had her eyes glued to the Hawk at all times! We don't recommend this as an ideal way of following a game, but for the sake of science -- and accurate blogging -- one of the BCs had eyes like a on the Hawk. And thus, we are able to report to our readers with 100% confidence that, indeed, the Hawk flapped away the entire time. (We've even supplied a little video above as evidence to support our claim.)

We have to hand it to the Hawk . . . neither rain, nor snow, nor extreme cold -- nor ushers -- kept her from her appointed flapping. As you might guess, having a Hawk flapping away in the stands (or in front of you) during the game was pretty distracting to people actually interested in watching the game. So, not surprisingly, the Terps Hosts were constantly telling the Hawk to move her flapping elsewhere. Which she did, without so much as a squawk of complaint, while never missing a beat and flapping away all the while. In short, the Hawk was unflappable! And today, as it turned out, so were the Terps.

After a first half in which Maryland took a 12-point lead into the locker room (36-24), the Hawks came flying back, closing the gap to 3 about halfway through the final period. But the Terps remained unflappable, getting stops and big baskets when they needed to, finishing with a 10-point win, 79-69.

Diandra T had a huge game (except from the foul line), putting up 25 points to lead all scorers and adding 5 (clean) monster blocks. Anjale Barrett, coming off the bench, scored 20 points, and deserves an enormous shout out for nailing key buckets and hitting big FTs in the second half to stop the Hawks' runs . . . more than once. Lynetta Kizer, who struggled a bit today offensively, still nearly finished with a double double (10 board and 8 points), while Lori Bjork again hit the double figures, rounding out the Terps's double-digit scoring with 11.

And so now the Terps' home win streak -- an AMAZING 47 games long -- has been extended into a 4th calendar year. It began in 2007, and today's win means it's made it into another decade, 2010! Unbelievable.

Also with today's win, Maryland has completed its non-conference schedule this season. The toughest and most important games of the year -- ACC conference play -- begin on Thursday when Maryland faces NC State on the road in Raleigh. After that, Maryland plays a nationally televised road game in Charlottesville against the Cavs (on Jan. 11), before returning to Comcast to host the BC Eagles on the 14th. We wish the Terps the best on Thursday in this important opening stretch of the ACC season.

Go Terps! Beat the Wolfpack!

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Injury report: as our readers know, Kim Rodgers injured her left hand during last week's game against UNC-Wilmington. We learned today that Kim fractured a bone in her hand, and it's expected to take about 4 weeks to heal. Kim was suited up, wearing a hard cast (with a color-coordinated Maryland red wrapping) and, we've heard, could play if she needed to. But we were also told (unofficially) that playing might be painful for her, so let's just wish Kim a speedy recovery and hope that she will not need to volunteer to play in pain.

Video Credit: DC BasketCases