I am really getting tired of these road ACC games following the same pattern. Again last night, we built a lead, only to see it evaporate and then go down big at the start of the second half. We played awful in the first half, missing a ton of easy shots and not boxing out. You would figure we would show passion in the second half, but the Hokies decided to get out on the break to start the second half and it resulted in easy bucket after easy bucket. The Hokies lead 39-30, before the Terps stormed back to take a 43-42 lead midway through the half. The teams traded buckets the rest of the way, until super frosh Kristi Toliver decided enough was enough and scored 10 points in a row to help us sweep the Commonwealth this year. If you include George Mason we went 3-0 in Virginia this year. The game wasn't pretty and we played lethargic throughout the game. Didn't help that the refs called 41 fouls or that Harper and Newman were out of the game with 4 minutes to go.
It's a win and puts us a full game ahead of Miami in the ACC standings. Short week for us with GT on Thursday and at Wake on Sunday. We need to put those two teams away early.
Game Story | Box Score
Positives
Crystal dominated again. Aside from a few questionable traveling calls, Crystal took advantage of her weaker opponents by going strong to the glass and scoring a team high 21 points and grabbing 12 rebounds. We just need to get her the ball more.
Toliver. You would never know she was a freshman playing with a leg injury, the way she has played the last few games. Her shot wasn't falling early on, but it went in when the game mattered most. Also, she played great defense on Mason throughout the game, not allowing her to go off as she normally has against us.
Charmaine. She had the biggest bucket of the night, as she raced down the court picked up a rebound and put it back to give the Terps a 43-42 lead. She also played decent defense in her limited minutes.
Free Throw shooting. We went 9-for-9 in the first half, which singlehandily kept us in the game.
Marissa and Shay. The shots weren't falling so they did the little things. Rebound, play defense and hustle. These two have to stop worrying about their shots too much.
Negatives
The officiating. There were 41 combined fouls in this game and nearly half of them were questionable. It was illegal to breath on certain players, but running people over was allowed.
Turnovers. 20 is too many, especially 13 in the first half.
Free Throw shooting. We missed too many with the game on the line.
Defending slashing forwards. Every game we get burned by a player that can slash to the hoop. This needs to be fixed.
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