Thursday, January 19, 2012

If All You Saw was the final score of Maryland's win tonight over Wake Forest at Comcast, 86-58, you'd probably never guess that these two teams had been tied at the half, 37-all. But they were.

The Terps played a somewhat uninspired first 20 minutes, on both the offensive and defensive ends . . . except for one player. Tianna Hawkins started the night by pulling down 15 rebounds in 15 minutes! You don't have to be a math genius to figure that averages out to 1 board per minute of playing time. Fifteen rebounds would be pretty damn darn good for a full game; 15 in the first half . . . that's great!

And Tianna didn't stop there. She led the Terps in a second half rout of the Demon Deacons, as Maryland outscored Wake Forest 49-21 in the final 20 minutes. Tianna played a total of (only) 27 minutes, finishing with a game-high 18 points and (drumroll, please) 24 rebounds! Yes, 2-4 . . . 24 boards! That's just, well, amazing!

Not only amazing, but a New Maryland School Record. Tonight, T-Hawk broke a Terps record that had stood for 35 years. Let's put this in perspective: if Tianna's record stands as long as the previous one did, it won't be broken until the year 2047.

Fantastic accomplishment, Ti!

As big a night as this was for Tianna, the Terps' 5th ACC win this year (and 18th win of the season) was far from a one-woman show. Tianna was pulling down boards all game long, but when we saw Alyssa Thomas break out her trademark smile early in the second half, we just knew this game was going to end well for Maryland.

After struggling against the Cavs, and scoring just 4 points in the first half tonight, Super Soph A-T finished the game just 3 assists short of a triple-double (16 points, 11 boards and 7 assists). It's hard to upstage an outing like that . . . but breaking a 35-year-old school record? Yeah, that'll do it. We give the nod to Tianna.

But this evening's second-half dismantling of the Deacons wasn't a two-woman tag-team performance either. It was a solid team win. At one point in the second half, the BCs looked at the scoreboard and noticed something you don't see very often: all 5 Maryland players on the court at that time were in double figures. 'Netta, Laurin and Bones each finished with 11 points.

The first half wasn't all that much fun, but the second half more than made up for it. A well-played 20 minutes of basketball. A great way to finish . . . particularly when the next time the officials toss the ball in the air, the Terps will be facing Duke, on the road at Cameron. It doesn't get any tougher than that . . . not, at least, in ACC play. From Demons to Devils, that's the ACC!

Congratulations, Tianna! You are now part of Maryland history!

Go Terps . . . Beat the Blue Devils!

5 Comments:

At 2:30 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I agree - Tianna had a special game - Alicia continues to impress me with her consistent play. What impressed me most was the fine leadership displayed by Brene. Brene scored in double figures and ran the team superbly. She had more minutes than Barrett. Thanks for your comments.

 
At 5:44 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Why was Whitney in sweats!?!?

 
At 6:13 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Love Tianna-she puts out so much effort. Glad for her. Let's see if this team can put a solid 40 minute game together. If we do, I think we win a close game. If not, we get killed on Sunday.

 
At 1:50 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Not that we need the validation, but is nice to see the Lady Terps on the front page of the Post's sports section. There is some very good news in DC area sports! Congrats to the team-it seems every ACC game is a battle - as usual!

Good luck in devil land.

 
At 1:35 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Awesome game Tianna - you're even getting favorably noticed on the, imo, fairly pro-men MD boards. :)

 

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