Terps Turn to Their Better Half to Advance

Maryland 80, Coppin State 66

At halftime of the Maryland women's basketball team's first-round NCAA tournament game, Coach Brenda Frese had plenty to say to her players and very little of it is printable. Frese was livid yesterday after the Terrapins started strong then faded, allowing Coppin State to take the lead.

"Mainly, she was just very disappointed," guard Ashleigh Newman said. "Disappointed in how we came out so well and just let it slip away like that, let them dictate to us what we were going to do."

Frese's second-half instructions were simple: Play defense. Coppin State's talented guards Shalamar Oakley and Rashida Suber had torched the Terrapins in the first half. If Maryland didn't find a way to stop them, its season was going to be over prematurely.

With a renewed focus on defense in the final 20 minutes, the top-seeded Terrapins prevailed, 80-66, over the No. 16 seed Eagles. Maryland (31-3), still undefeated at Comcast Center this season, advanced to tomorrow's second round to play eighth-seeded Nebraska, a 61-58 winner against Xavier.

Coppin State (22-12) entered this game fuming at what it perceived was a snub by the selection committee, which not only had given the Eagles a No. 16 seed but also hadn't given them much of a road trip. They traveled just 30 minutes down I-95 for their first-round game.

"We just wanted to come out and prove that we could play with the big schools," Oakley said. "I feel like after people watched this game it brought a different sense of respect for us and our team."

Maryland had spent the past two weeks working on little else but defense and rebounding, but little of that was evident in the first half. After surging to a 12-4 lead, the Terrapins grew complacent and Coppin State capitalized. The Eagles went on a 14-0 run led by Oakley who scored 10 of her 20 points during that stretch.

"Most of the time [Maryland] took too long to" defend her, Oakley said. "By the time they [arrived], I was already shooting."

Maryland always has trouble with quick, physical guards, and the Eagles presented many of the same problems that Georgia Tech and North Carolina did. Suber (25 points) and Oakley combined for 45 of Coppin State's 66 points.

"I think these two guards did a way better job of attacking and getting to the rim than the Georgia Tech kids would," point guard Kristi Toliver said.

Toliver had a memorable game, and not just because she set the ACC season record for assists. Her seven assists gave her 255 for the season, breaking the mark held by Tara Heiss. Toliver had an upset stomach during the game, and after making her only three-pointer early in the second half, she left for the locker room.

"I was feeling sick throughout the course of the game," she said. "At one point in the second half, I really couldn't hold it in anymore so I had to dismiss myself. I just got a little sick, but I'll be all right."

In the second half, Frese started Newman in place of freshman Marah Strickland. Newman's defense -- she had four steals -- seemed to give the Terrapins a lift.

"I thought she brought the greatest amount of intensity for us and set the tone from the defensive end," said Frese, who earned her 200th career victory. "I wanted to continue to have that tone set for the next 20 minutes."

Maryland, which improved to 12-0 against Coppin State, never felt threatened in this game. Nonetheless, the Eagles certainly tested them.

"We're going to get every team's best shot in the NCAA tournament," Newman said. "I'd have to say, yeah, I'm glad they came out and gave us their best shot. They didn't care that we were the number one seed. They were coming to win, just like we were."

¿ NEBRASKA 61, XAVIER 58: The Lady Huskers withstood a late rally by the ninth-seeded Musketeers to win their first NCAA tournament game in 10 years. Kelsey Griffin scored 26 points for Nebraska (21-11), which advances to play top-seeded Maryland on Tuesday. Jerri Taylor sank five three-pointers and scored 19 points for Xavier (24-9); Ta'Shia Phillips added 16 rebounds.