Sunday, March 21, 2010

Half Enough

Typically, a team needs the better part of two good halves of basketball to come away with a win. This afternoon, however, in the first half (playing their normal rotation of starters and reserves), the Terps managed to score more points (53) than the East Carolina Lady Pirates managed to score in the entire game (52). Which should give you some indication that this WNIT second round matchup at Comcast was a lopsided affair from start to finish: halftime score, 53-31, and final score, Terps win, 87-52.

A big reason for the Terps' first-half production was the fact that Kim Rodgers picked up today exactly where she left off on Friday night. Kim nailed another five threes, and finished with a career-high 17 points. That impressive output, however, was topped by Lori Bjork, who led all scorers with 20 (despite the fact she only hit four threes). Lynetta Kizer also ended up in double figures, with 16.

Every Terp played, and every Terp scored. And speaking of career highs, rookie Tianna Hawkins had one today with 5 blocks, plus -- in only 18 minutes of playing time (due to some early foul trouble) -- she grabbed 10 rebounds. By game's end, Ti's shirt was hanging out, her hair was askew . . . she may have had a short day, but she worked extra hard during every one of those 18 minutes. And another rookie, Dara Taylor, also recorded a career high . . . sneaking in among the tall trees to come away with 8 rebounds.

Given the glorious summer-like weather and the fact that the Gentlemen Terps had a 2:30PM start in their NCAA game today, it was no surprise that the women's game was sparsely attended. But for those of us die-hards who showed up, it was good fun. And it was certainly great experience for the young Terps, who now advance to the WNIT's Round of 16, with a game against the winner of tomorrow night's meeting between Old Dominion and Providence College. (The Terps' game will be at 7PM on Thursday, at Comcast.)

Go Terps! Beat Whoever!


* * * * * * * *
And another word about that other tournament . . . How about those Dayton Flyers?!!! Playing in their first-ever NCAA tournament, the Flyers posted an exciting come-from-behind, last-second win over TCU yesterday, 67-66, and now move on to play the Lady Vols. We loved Dayton Head Coach Jim Jabir's response to Doris Burke's question yesterday, about how the Flyers planned to handle Tennessee on the Lady Vols' home court in Knoxville: "We'll do what we can," said Jabir, with a big smile. Great answer! Go Flyers!

2 Comments:

At 5:33 PM, Anonymous Lacey said...

Great Game. According to the WNIT website, we will be playing at the Comcast Center, Thursday at 7:00.

 
At 6:40 PM, Blogger BasketCases said...

Thanks Lacey, we were waiting for the Terps' own web site to confirm the date/time, as it now has (since the WNIT was originally wrong about the time of today's game).

We've update our post accordingly.

Thanks again.

-- BC

 

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