Maryland women fall to No. 10 North Carolina

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. -- Few arenas have been more inhospitable to Maryland than Carmichael Auditorium. Even though the Terrapins are 5-4 against North Carolina in their last nine meetings with the Tar Heels, they have lost nine of their last 10 games in Chapel Hill. Their only win on North Carolina's home court since 1996 came on Feb. 9, 2006, a 98-95 double-overtime victory that propelled them to a national championship later that year.

Given Maryland's youth, it would be optimistic to expect the inexperienced Terrapins to succeed where more veteran teams had failed -- especially since 10th-ranked North Carolina was coming off back-to-back losses and was desperate for a win.

Once again, the Tar Heels proved too much for Maryland, winning 75-64, on Sunday, though in this case, the Terrapins' loss had less to do with the hostile environment than their own miscues.

Maryland turned over the ball 23 times, which led to 18 points for North Carolina. The Terrapins also shot just 35.5 percent from the floor and made 13 of 25 free throws (52 percent) -- the fourth consecutive game their foul shooting has been under 55 percent.

"Really proud of the fact of how hard we played," Maryland Coach Brenda Frese said. "Obviously from our end, we've got to play smarter. You come on the road and turn the ball over 23 times and shoot the ball from the free throw line like we did, we've got to improve. We've got to get better."

Though Maryland (14-4, 2-2 ACC) isn't the only team to struggle at Carmichael Auditorium -- North Carolina (14-3, 2-1) is 95-3 on its home court since the 2004-05 season and has won 18 consecutive home conference games -- the Terrapins do seem to play differently here.

Maryland did not start off well in this game. The Terrapins' defense was lax, allowing North Carolina to score on five of its first six possessions. And their offense was out of sorts. Maryland missed nine of its first 11 shots and committed six turnovers in the first 8 1/2 minutes to fall behind, 18-7.

Then, about midway through the first half, the Terrapins righted themselves and started chipping away at North Carolina's lead. What made their comeback so impressive was that they rallied despite having their starting point guard and center on the bench in foul trouble. Dara Taylor picked up her second foul with eight minutes remaining and Maryland trailing 22-16. Lynetta Kizer played just seven minutes in the first half.

Lori Bjork's three-pointer gave the Terrapins a 30-29 lead, but it was short-lived. North Carolina went back in front, 33-30. The Tar Heels' lead didn't last long either, though. Kim Rodgers sank her third three-pointer of the half to tie the score going into halftime.

Rodgers (11 points) and Bjork (18 points) were the only Terrapins to make more than one field goal in the first half, combining to go 6 of 16 overall, including 4 of 13 from behind the arc. The rest of the team was 5 of 16 overall and 0 of 3 from three-point range.

"There probably was a few jitters from such a young team," Rodgers said. "This is the first time a lot of us have played in this arena. We had to get those out first."

After Yemi Oyefuwa put back a missed shot to pull Maryland to 45-42, the Terrapins turned the ball over six times and didn't even attempt a shot for nearly four minutes. Meanwhile, North Carolina went on a 9-0 run to build a 12-point lead.

"I think at halftime we felt we had weathered the storm of being down 10 and kind of that, uh-oh, here we go again," Bjork said. "We came back from that and we were able to tie it up and then we were just never able to get over the hump and take control of the game."