After 20-0 Start, Terps Cruise to Easy Victory

Maryland Women 92, Wake Forest 65

For the first seven minutes of 14th-ranked Maryland's 92-65 victory over Wake Forest last night, the Demon Deacons threw up shot after shot that clanked off the rim or bounced off the backboard.

Things got so bad for the visitors that when they finally attempted a shot from within three feet of a basket -- nearly 6 1/2 minutes into the game -- and the wide-open layup didn't fall into the hoop, the Comcast Center crowd of 5,974 let out a seemingly sympathetic "aww."

When Wake Forest finally converted a shot -- a banked-in three-pointer by Brittany Waters with 12 minutes 59 seconds left in the half -- the crowd cheered. By that point, Maryland (13-2) had already scored 20 points and was on its way to a rout.

"It's great to be able to see the statement that we made today for our first ACC game," said Coach Brenda Frese, whose team will take a six-game winning streak into Monday's showdown at fifth-ranked Duke (12-1). "Obviously to come out and make the statement that we made from a defensive end, that really got us clicking on all cylinders. Defense led to offense, and very unselfish play."

Wake Forest (12-2) has long been one of the weaker programs in the ACC -- finishing with a winning conference record only once (1987-88) and winning just five conference games during the past three seasons combined -- but it has shown signs of improvement this season. The Demon Deacons won their first 12 games (though only five of those victories came against teams that currently have winning records), and sneaked into the coaches' poll at No. 25 earlier this week.

But Wake Forest was overwhelmed from the beginning. The Demon Deacons missed their first 11 shots, repeatedly settling for long jumpers against Maryland's aggressive defense. Their first six shots came from beyond the arc -- not a good start for a team that made just 1 of 11 three-point shots in its more recent outing, a 45-33 loss at Richmond on Tuesday.

"The biggest thing at the start of the game was our offense," said Wake Forest Coach Mike Petersen, whose team shot just 28.2 percent in the first half. "You're not going to stop Maryland from scoring. They're going to score; that's what they do. They're really talented. The problem was, we had zero push to our offensive end. That's not us."

The Terrapins, meantime, made eight of their first 13 shots, and converted 51.4 percent of their attempts.

Senior guard Kristi Toliver scored 22 points and sophomore guard Marah Strickland added 12; together they combined for nearly half (six) of Maryland's season-high 13 three-point baskets.

One early possession was emblematic of the way Maryland shared the ball. Forward Dee Liles fired a pass from the top of the key to Sa'de Wiley-Gatewood, who was down on the block. But instead of forcing up a shot against a rapidly closing defender, Wiley-Gatewood dumped the ball to a cutting Drey Mingo (10 points), who converted a layup for a 15-0 lead.

Midway through the first half, Wake Forest scored on three straight possessions, each time coming up with an offensive rebound, and cut the score to 24-9. Frese called a timeout with 10:59 left in the half, and had an animated discussion with her players.

"Our history has kind of shown sometimes that when we get big leads, we think we can take a few possessions off," said Frese, whose team frittered away an early 9-0 lead at Richmond on Saturday, fell behind and then exploded for a blowout victory. "I thought we were taking a few possessions off. It's a credit to this team, I thought we played pretty solid after that time, coming out into the second half, and continuing to really make a statement."

It was exactly the kind of start to conference play that the Terrapins, who had five players make their ACC debuts, wanted. Freshman center Lynetta Kizer made seven of 10 shots and scored 17 points, and Liles, a junior college transfer, grabbed a career-high 13 rebounds. Maryland's bench combined to score 23 points, led by Mingo and redshirt freshman Anjale Barrett (eight points).

"For a lot of the players, this was their first ACC game," Toliver said. "The fact that we started off extremely focused, executed really well, ran the floor, got back in transition, got defensive stops -- I think we set the tone for this ACC run that we're about to have."