Maryland Barely Escapes

Toliver, Coleman Rally Top-Seeded Terps Past Upset-Minded Wake Forest: Maryland 72, Wake Forest 70

GREENSBORO, N.C., March 6 -- Everything, it seemed, had gone so well for the Maryland women over the past month, as they won nine straight games and wrapped up their first regular season ACC title in 20 years.

So it must have been a bit of a shock to look up at the scoreboard Friday in the second half of their ACC quarterfinal against ninth-seeded Wake Forest -- a team they had blown out in the regular season -- and see that they were trailing by 12 with slightly less than 10 minutes to play. Some doubt must have set in, especially as the Terrapins had gone through a 5 1/2 -minute scoreless stretch in which they missed layups and free throws.

"No. There was never a doubt in my mind," said freshman center Lynetta Kizer, the ACC rookie of the year. "Everyone was like, 'Believe, believe, believe!' We're all fighters in this locker room, and we knew that we were going to fight from that point on down."

The top-seeded Terrapins, behind Kizer and their pair of all-ACC seniors, Kristi Toliver and Marissa Coleman, rallied for a 72-70 victory in front of 6,160 at Greensboro Coliseum. Maryland (26-4) will play four-time defending ACC champion North Carolina (26-5), the No. 4 seed, in the semifinals at 1 p.m. on Saturday.

After his team beat North Carolina State in the first round on Thursday, Wake Forest Coach Mike Petersen outlined two keys to beating Maryland: first, a team needs to put up points, because the Terrapins have a prolific offense; and second, a team needs to minimize Toliver, who earlier in the day was named ACC player of the year, and Coleman and force them to take difficult shots.

The Demon Deacons (19-11) were able to do both through the first three-quarters of the game, and held a 63-51 lead with 9 minutes 51 seconds to play.

Wake Forest -- which went scoreless for the first seven minutes and fell behind, 20-0, in a 92-65 loss in College Park in January -- made 27 of its first 52 shots, or 51.9 percent. The Demon Deacons, behind fearless 5-foot-4 freshman point guard Brooke Thomas (15 points, 11 assists), repeatedly buried open looks at the basket against Maryland's man-to-man defense.

During the first 30 minutes, Coleman, who was often shadowed by 5-11 senior Alex Tchangoue (16 points, 10 rebounds), was 3 for 9 from the floor, and Toliver, who was guarded by both taller (5-11 Courteney Morris) and smaller (Thomas) players, was 2 for 10 (1 for 5 from beyond the arc).

It was Maryland's supporting players -- Kizer (16 points, 11 rebounds), junior forward Dee Liles and redshirt freshmen Anjalé Barrett and Kim Rodgers -- who kept the Terrapins in the game early. Liles scored all 11 of her points in the first half, often scoring on layups set up by Coleman and Toliver, while Barrett and Rodgers -- both of whom sport heavy braces on their right knees -- combined to score 14 of Maryland's final 17 points of the first half.

"In order to be a successful team, you have to have everyone," Maryland Coach Brenda Frese said. "Wake's game plan was to throw two defenders at Marissa and KT all night to make it difficult for any shot that they were going to be able to get. Credit Marissa and KT for understanding that we needed to go to our bigs and get them involved."

But with five minutes left in the game, Coleman and Toliver took over. Toliver fed Coleman for a jumper, and then Toliver turned a defensive rebound into a step-back three-pointer from the left side -- a shot that ranks among her most clutch shots of the season, she said. All of a sudden, Maryland was within one with 4:25 to play. The Terrapins took their first lead of the second half on a layup by Coleman -- set up, of course, by a long pass from Toliver (15 points, six assists).

"When the game got close, you knew [Toliver] was going to try to take over," Petersen said. "And you know that she is a phenomenal offensive player that's made clutch shots her whole career, and today was no different."

There were other key factors down the stretch: Maryland's switch to a zone defense caused the Demon Deacons to settle for jump shots, and they were just 2 of 12 over the final 9:50. Sophomore Marah Strickland, who was 0 for 7 from the floor, grabbed a key offensive rebound, was fouled and made both free throws to give the Terrapins a 68-65 lead with 3:11 remaining.

"Kristi and I have been in these situations before, so we know it can go one way or another," said Coleman, who finished with 12 points, 7 rebounds and 5 assists. "We've been in positions when it has gone bad for us. So we knew we needed to stay composed. We had a lot of time left; luckily we weren't down 12 with four minutes left. Once we got the lead, I think we crushed their confidence a little bit and ours went up."

-- DUKE 76, VIRGINIA 53: Abby Waner scored 16 points to help the third-seeded Blue Devils (25-4) win their tournament opener for the 15th straight year. Duke has reached the semifinals every year since 1995 and next faces Florida State.

The Blue Devils built a 25-point first-half lead and cruised to their 16th straight win against the Cavaliers (23-9). Duke shot 56 percent, including 8 for 13 from three-point range, and scored 26 points off turnovers.

-- NORTH CAROLINA 74, CLEMSON 55: Jessica Breland had 22 points and 11 rebounds, and the Tar Heels shook off a sluggish start to rout the Tigers.

Bryelle Smith scored 13 points for 12th-seeded Clemson (14-17), which surprised Georgia Tech in the opening round but hasn't won multiple games at an ACC tournament since 1999.

-- FLORIDA STATE 83, BOSTON COLLEGE 71: Tanae Davis-Cain and Mara Freshour each scored 20 points to lead the second-seeded Seminoles (25-6) to just their second appearance in the ACC tournament semifinals and their first since 2001.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.