The picture should give you a hint that today's most exciting game for Terps fans, in the BCs' opinion, was the one held outside at the Field Hockey Complex. That's where a standing room only crowd (10 deep!) saw the Maryland Field Hockey team win the NCAA NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP in double OT, 3-2, over defending champ UNC . . . and lucky us, the BCs were on hand to witness this intense, exhausting, well-played, nailbiter of an event. As a bonus, it was played on a beautiful, sunny day, in a state-of-the-art facility on Maryland's campus. What a wonderful place to win a Natty and what a fitting way to crown a champion!
The Tarheels deserve a lot of credit for pushing Maryland's exceptional team to the limit. But we can't say enough about the Terps team. Two 35-minute halves, followed by a 15 minute OT, then followed by another OT that lasted nearly 13 minutes before Megan Frazer scored to claim the Sudden Victory for Maryland. Well done, Terps! Well done, Coach M! Another Natty for Maryland! Wow, was that ever fun!
Among the fans who packed the FH Complex were plenty of familiar faces; fans we're used to seeing indoors, at basketball games. If the Natty game had been decided in regulation, we would've had time to watch it end, cheer the Terps' trophy presentation, and still make it to Comcast for the tip-off of Maryland (basketball) versus American U. But we don't regret the extra time. As basketball fans, we know how exciting, how memorable it is to see your team win a Championship in overtime. Now we can say that double overtime is also our time.
Luckily, a special BB fan texted us about the progress of the basketball game . . . news that we of course shared with other basketball fans in the bleachers. The early scores simply reinforced for us that for edge-of-your-seat excitement, this afternoon, at least, you needed to be at the Complex, not in Comcast. While we were holding our collective breaths until the Terps FH team finally scored, the Terps basketball team was jumping on the AU Eagles early . . . and often.
By the time we made it to the basketball game (well into the first half), Maryland was already leading by 20. And, frankly, nothing happened on the court during the rest of the first half, or, for that matter, in the second 20 minutes, to threaten the Terps' substantial lead in any way. This was, as they say, an easy victory for Maryland. The highlight for us was seeing Sequoia ("Tree") Austin hit her first basket as a Terrapin . . . and a 3-pointer at that. Final score: 78-52.
Truthfully, we weren't as emotionally engaged in today's basketball game as we usually are. It was hard to change gears from a double OT National Championship win over an ACC rival at the Complex to an easy rout of a local opponent at Comcast. The best part of our basketball day actually followed the game . . . the first Rebounders' social of the season.
The Rebounders' post-game get-togethers with the team are always enjoyable, and today's was no exception. A big BCs shout-out to Jen Elkonoh for putting each of the Terps' freshmen on the clock for a little unscripted Q&A. Fun! And, as always, it was great to hear from Coach B and mingle with the players, their families and the coaches afterwards. A final note about today's game -- the victory was Coach B's 200th win at Maryland -- congratulations!!
The Terps now hit the road, heading to Greenville, NC for Thanksgiving dinner and tourney games against the University of Massachusetts and East Carolina.
So good luck to the Terps . . . Happy Thanksgiving to all . . . and CONGRATULATIONS MARYLAND FIELD HOCKEY!
Photo Credit: DCBasketCases
posted by BasketCases @ 7:59 PM
4 comments
4 Comments:
Saw some of the game yesterday. It's hard to tell just how good Maryland is when the opponent is so over-matched. It's also not clear what they're executing when Lynetta isn't in there to give them a serious presence underneath. But Alicia DeVaughn showed some signs of being able to provide some good back-up for Lynetta in the middle.
I was surprised when I realized that Alyssa Thomas was the leading scorer. She's not flashy; just gets the job done, whether it's scoring or rebounding.
The freshmen made lots of freshmen mistakes, in particular, going for the spectacular pass/play rather than the fundamentally sound one. According to the stats, AU and MD both had 21 turnovers, which suggests that MD still needs a lot of work on fundamentals.
Tianna Hawkins landed very hard on her right hip near the end of the game. A friend who attended the Rebounders meet afterwards noted that she was seriously gimpy and sat on her left cheek for much of the proceedings. Hope its nothing more than a bruise, as we need her bruising presence under the boards.
At point I would love a md team that doesn't turn the ball over a million times. I would like to see them in another game with a descent team like Georgetown. Playing the cream puffs make for boring games. Hopefully next year they will play a tougher non conference schedule. The game against purdue should be interesting. Looks like Mingo is really producing. Happy for her as long as she doesnt do it against us. Strickland for south Carolina is not producing. Intersting to see Cloud starting at the point. She was potential...just has to watch those turnovers.
Fear the Turtle, Baby! Congratulations! On a separate note, what did you guys think about this morning's article in the Post on the Mystics losing money -- which quoted our very own Judith!
If this were a baseball blog, I'd say she hit it out of the park.
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