No. 8 Maryland overpowers Virginia women

It was clear that something had to give Thursday night as the Virginia women’s basketball team hosted No. 8 Maryland at John Paul Jones Arena.

Virginia came in leading the ACC in scoring defense, giving up just 52.9 point per game while the Terrapins boasted the league’s top scoring offense at 81 points per game. Maryland (22-4, 9-4 ACC) made it clear early why it is worthy of its top 10 ranking as the Terps used a dominant inside performance to dispatch of the Cavaliers, 73-56, and end Virginia’s two-game ACC winning streak.

“I’m just disappointed as the kids are too,” Virginia coach Joanne Boyle said. “I thought they [Maryland] really came out strong as they would. They understand that they are playing for something important as we are too.”

After Virginia (18-9, 6-7) scored the game’s first points, the Terrapins asserted themselves in the paint and scored 14 of the next 16 points to take an early 14-4 lead. The Terps wouldn’t let their foot off of the gas, racing out to a 34-17 lead. Maryland took a 44-21 lead into halftime.

“I thought we really set the tone tonight with our defense and our rebounding,” said Maryland coach Brenda Frese, who notched the 300th win of her career. “Those are the things you have to have, especially going down the stretch and I’m just really proud of the intensity we played with tonight.”

Maryland junior Tianna Hawkins, who leads the ACC in rebounding, recorded a double-double in the first half as she scored 15 points and grabbed 10 rebounds. Maryland pulled down 29 rebounds in the first 40 minutes compared to just 10 for Virginia, and scored 34 points in the paint to the Cavaliers’ 10.

“We came out and got punched and really didn’t respond until the second half,” Boyle said. “That’s out worst game of the year, I felt we just laid down there in the first half and Maryland was clicking tonight.”

Virginia showed life in the second half. After trailing by 24, their largest deficit of the game, the Cavaliers mounted a comeback to cut the lead to 11 at 57-46. Maryland then scored the next 10 points to rebuild its lead and cruised the rest of the way.

“We got tired, so we had to come off of the press and you don’t get back in a game sitting in half-court defense,” Boyle said. “We expect more out of ourselves, this happened to us at Carolina and that should have been a teaching moment for us. The girls know I’m not going to lower the bar and be happy with moral victories.”

Hawkins finished the game with a career-high 26 points on 12-of-13 shooting and pulled down 14 rebounds as the Terrapins outrebounded Virginia 53-26. Alyssa Thomas, the conference’s leading scorer, chipped in with 16 points and 10 rebounds for the Terps.

Virginia was led by senior Ariana Moorer, who scored 23 points, pulled down five rebounds and tallied five steals. Chelsea Shine added eight points and now sits just six away from 1,000 for her career. Ataira Franklin added 10 points but shot just 3-of-15 from the field.

Virginia will look to rebound on Sunday at Virginia Tech.