Terps Turn Retrievers into Puppies, 98-56

Sorry for the delay, was caught up in Redskins euphoria (we are going to the playoffs and the game is on Saturday!).

What a day in College Park, I wasn't sure which record was going to fall. First, KT makes five 3s in the first half and I think the career and game record will fall. Then Marissa heats up and I think she will break the game record. Then Drey, Kat and Marah get in the act and before you know it we hit 17 three-pointers for the ACC record. Wonder how many other teams will try to play zone on us this year? Overall, the game was not close as UMBC led twice and then we scored 18 straight and the game was essentially over. UMBC had no height and it showed as both Harper (9) and Langhorne (10) grabbed the same or more rebounds than UMBC's players (they finished with 11 but 2 were team rebounds). The second half let us rest players and give Drey and Kat more time. Drey finished with 7 points, 5 rebounds and a block (1 foul, after fouling out on Saturday).

Defensively, we could have played better as we still don't jump to the three-point shooters fast enough, but we have to pick our poison - play like Rutgers and not score or score a ton and give up more points than we should. That's my only real complaint, but I guessing more practice time will eliminate that.

Non-conference play is over and now it's on to ACC play starting with Wake on Thursday. Check out the new poll on the left regarding wins in the ACC.

Happy New Year to all my loyal readers and here's hoping it's GREAT in 2008.

Game 17: UMBC

Here we go again, another game, but as I mentioned yesterday this will be the last time until March when we play on back-to-back days. Today we play UMBC and chances are today's game should end up like yesterday's.

UMBC is 4-8 with losses to James Madison (74-61), Loyola (58-56), Northern Iowa (74-72), and Richmond (64-51). They score only 57.6 ppg, but allow 62.6. The only grab 33.2 rebounds per game and only shoot 38.6% from the floor. They have two players over 6'0, neither of which scores that much.

The Retrievers best player is guard Carlee Cassidy who leads the team in scoring with 16.1 ppg. She has taken the most shots on the team and on Friday took 20 shots (nine from 3), making only 8. Guard Kristin Drabyn is second on the team in scoring at 9.3 ppg and second on the team in shots. Chantay Frazier, another guard, is third on the team in scoring. Hatten, a 5-10 guard, is the team's leading rebounder at 7.0 rpg.

We should attack the post all night long and Langhorne should be able to post another double-double. Our guards just need to pressure their guards into trouble and not allow them to get off shots.

After today, it's all ACC play.

Terps Step On Spiders, 89-59

Well today's game went exactly as planned. We came out firing on all cylinders and never let Richmond get into the game. Even when they tried to creep back in we slammed the door shut with a 12-0 run to end the half and take a 21-point lead into half. The only shocking thing was that KT missed a shot at the buzzer. In the second half, the score was never closer than 16 and it was more of whether Crystal could grab 20 rebounds and if Marissa would get her double-double (she did!)

I really liked how Coleman shot the ball today and it looks like her three-point stroke is finally coming around. Langhorne had a nose for the ball and only committed one turnover. It seems to me that in the first half, Kristi has decided that if her shot isn't falling, she gets her teammates involved and then waits for the D to collapse and then shoots away. Mingo got in the game, but didn't do much as she was foul prone again (maybe this is why we don't see more of her when the games matter).

Jade needs to work on her free throws as she missed a bunch and it seems to affect the rest of her game. Still need to take care of the ball better as we tend to force things still, but all in all cannot complain with a 30-point win.

Tomorrow we play again, this time against UMBC (This is the last time until March where we play back-to-back games).

Don't forget to send in those baby names.

Game 16: Richmond

The holidays are over and it's time to play hoops again. This time it's Richmond in the Terrapin Classic, which for some reason is a three-day event instead of the typical two-day affair. I missed today's Richmond vs. UMBC game but it looks like there were 119 people that didn't miss it. Richmond beat UMBC 64-51 and now the leader for earning runner up honors (unless something fishy happens the next two days).

Richmond is now 7-5 on the season with losses coming against Georgia, Fairfield, Virginia, Montana and VCU. They haven't given up more than 86 points all year and haven't scored more than 81. The Spiders are averaging 64 ppg, grabbing 35.0 rebounds and shooting 40.1% from the floor. They like to shoot the three with five players having attempted more than 26 this year. As a team they shoot 61.7 % from the free throw line.

Richmond is led by Johanna McKnight a guard averaging 14.0 ppg and 4.7 rpg. She shoots 45.3% from behind the arc, but today went 0-for-4. Brittani Shells is second on the team in scoring with 12.4 ppg. The smaller guard shoots 39.5% from three, but doesn't rebound much. Kate Holzer is the leading rebounder at 7.5 per game and also averages double figures in scoring. She is the lone player who started today that doesn't shoot the 3. Christina Campion is the other post player and was on fire today making 6-of-7 three pointers after only making 3 all year. She rebounds at a 6.4 clip. Kara Powell is the team's PG, and also likes to shoot the 3, but only shoots 21%. They have three main bench players: Thomas, who doesn't shoot the 3, Goring, the sister of former NC Stater Gillian and Bell, who is more of a shooter and likes to grab the occasional steal.

The defensive match ups will be as follows, I think:
Powell - Toliver
Shells - Strickland
McKnight - Coleman
Campion - Harper
Holzer - Langhorne

I would love to see us put this game away early and get Drey some minutes with the main line up. You never know when Drey is going to have to play serious minutes in ACC play. We haven't played Maryland basketball for a a few games now - since the loss to Rutgers - and it's time to get back to that style.

Thursday's Tidbits

We dropped to 5th in the AP poll after Stanford beat Tennessee, but remained fifth in the Coaches' poll. Our game versus Carolina may determine the final #1 seed.

Harper was named ACC Player of the Week becoming the fourth Terp this season to accomplish that feat. Of course the ACC sucks and didn't put anything in it's release about how many other schools have had four different players win POW in a single season.

Charlie Creme did his first bracket of the year a few weeks ago and it looks like he has us playing Texas or Penn State in round two.

Mechelle Voepel did an article on Brenda's pregnancy and Coach Walz's newest Angel.

Mike Fratto previews the rest of the season for the Washington Times.

Milton Kent did a feature on Kristi last week.

I am working on a poll for Brenda's baby names, send me your suggestions and i will pick the best ones. Right now I have:
Boston and Albuquerque
Pat and Geno
Shay and Crystal

You can scout our next two opponents at 1 pm today if interested.

The Red Coat is Coming

Tomorrow marks Jeff Walz's official return to Baltimore as they play Coppin State University at 2 p.m. Louisville has turned things around since a slow start and I think is on the verge of hoisting the Commonwealth Cup after wins over Western Kentucky and Kentucky.

I may stop by depending on how holiday shopping is going. I will be the one with the sign:

Can't

Stand

U - Jeff Walz

(Daron is so much better)

Go Eagles!

Terps Keep Dukes From Streaking, 71-65

It was a great atmosphere for hoops in the MadiZone and luckily for us we came away with the win. The refs decided early that Kristi wasn't going to be allowed to showcase her skills for the captive audience and put her on the bench three minutes into the game. And that proved how valuable she was to the team. With her on the bench, Coleman couldn't guard Young and our offense had no rhythym.

I figured in the second half, Kristi would take over and put this game away early, but our recent trend (and harking back to last year) of coming out sluggish to start the second half reared its ugly head again. Then we decided to tease the fans by trailing by 10 with 9 minutes to go. The competitive switch went off and JMU scored 8 points the rest of the game, while we scored 24.

I think it's time to put an end to these homecoming games. The last three have not been fun: Middle Tennessee State (Ashleigh and Jade) - narrow win, Temple (Harper) - narrow win, UCSB and UCLA (Sade) - narrow wins, JMU (Kristi) - narrow win. The last easy win was against Monmouth (Crystal and Shay) and we need a second half burst to control that game.

Congrats to Ashleigh for making our lone three.

Harper gets Player of the Game honors for being ferocious all night.

I wasn't too happy with Langhorne taking maybe 7 shots last night, as natty06 told me practice would change this. Plus she needs to start making her free throws or the ACC season will become "Hang on Lang" to keep her from filling up the bucket. Disappointed in Drey not seeing more time and makes me wonder what next year holds with no post experience. Lastly, the refs were awful again.

See you all for Richmond on the 29th.

Game 15: James Madison

Well it's been a while, hasn't it? Are we sure the 08-09 season isn't starting today? After 14 games in 31 days, we play our first game in 11 days. Let's hope the layoff doesn't affect us that much.

If you aren't making the trip to the MadiZone, you can watch the game through JMU's site for $8, listen to WMUC and/or watch GameTracker via JMUSports.

James Madison enters the game with a record of 6-2 and riding a two-game losing streak. They have also won 30 games in a row at home including this season over Wake Forest and George Washington. They are another defensive-minded team with the most points they have given up being 79. Offensively, they average 73.9 ppg. The Dukes also love to work the glass averaging 48.1 rebounds while only allowing 33.2 to their opponents. They aren't great shooters with a FG percentage of .387.

Their offense revolves around Tamera Young, who leads the team in points, rebounds and turnovers. She has taken 27 three-pointers, but only made 2 on the season. She's a 6-2 guard, which means Marissa will be guarding her. Limit her touches, and I believe their offense will crumble. Dawn Evans is a 5-7 guard and their main three point threat, making 21 of 61 shots. Kisha Stokes is their post presence and is second on the team in rebounding with 9.6. Jennifer Brown is the other person in the post and the team leader in blocks. Jasmin Lawrence rounds out the starters and is primarily a shooter. I assume the defensive match ups will be as follows:
Coleman - Young
Toliver - Evans
Harper - Stokes
Langhorne - Brown
Lawrence - Strickland

We just need to put this game away early like we did at Northern Iowa last year. If we let the crowd get into the game, it could be a long night and long bus trip back.

A Little Holiday Dancing

From some Maryland Elves



And from some famous Scrooges

Wednesday's Words

With all the games in such a short time, I wasn't able to keep you all updated about the happenings with the team so without further ado:

The Rutgers loss saw us drop to 6th in the coaches' poll, but then we moved up to 5th this week and even picked up a first place vote (I am guessing the Pitt coach did that). In the AP we are fourth and we are finally able to access votes by visiting here. If you want to spit some venom e-mail Elliott Warnock at the Chapel Hill News who has picked us 10th.

The Diamondback did a feature on Marah Strickland

The Washington Post did a feature on Coach Frese and a day in the life of a pregnant coach.

Crystal was last week's ACC POW, giving us three thus far this season.

Kristi Toliver moved up to second on CSTV's weekly Wade Watch

Jeff Lippman wrote a scathing piece about how Toliver takes too many shots in losses

Terps win Boxing Match over Temple, 64-46

In the most physical game of the year and the last of a 14-game stretch, the Terps finally responded to being pushed around and sent a message to Temple and other teams of their ilk by winning by 18. In the past, we would have wilted due to being hacked, elbowed and pushed on almost every play, but yesterday we gave it right back and said enough was enough. The game was poorly officiated as the refs let it get out of hand and thus players fell all over the court.

I thought the defense was outstanding as we really limited Temple's looks and they were forced to take a bunch of bad shots. We also didn't rely on the three-point shot as much, as we only took two (and made them both), which shows that we can play on the inside when they pressure us from the outside.

Player of the Game: Kristi. Yes, she led the team in scoring, but I was more impressed that she played a true PG in the first half and didn't look for her shot. She took two shots and instead had 7 assists and four rebounds. She realized her shot wasn't falling and got her teammates involved. It was great to see.

Next Up: James Madison on Dec. 20 (yes, imagine that, no games for 11 days). God rested on the seventh day, the Maryland Women's Basketball team didn't get to rest until the 32nd day.

Game 14: Temple

For the fourth time this week, we have a game. Today will officially mark the end of the craziest schedule in NCAA history. The ladies just need 40 more minutes of energy and then they can rest their legs.

Today's opponent is Temple, which gave us quite the game last year at their place. Temple is 4-5 with their losses coming against Georgia, Georgia Tech, Duke, Stanford and NC State so they have played top competition and will not be intimated. They have beaten Purdue this year and were up 19 on Stanford before losing.

They are similiar to Rutgers as they play in your face defense and will hound you all over the court. They want to play the game in the 60s as they are averaging 61 points per game. The Owls give up 52.7 points per game and haven't given up more than 64 all season long.

5-5 guard Ashley Morris is the offensive star of the team. Last year she was a reserve and now has taken full advantage of playing all the time. She averages 17.0 ppg and will shoot both inside and outside as she has taken the most shots inside and outside the arc. Lady Comfort is their inside threat (she missed the game last year) and averages 11 and 9.4 rebounds. She does seem foul prone. Helping her out in the middle is Shenita Landry who leads the team in blocks and third in rebounding and scoring. LaKeisha Eaddy is their little pest of a guard who will help on the double teams to create the steal. She is turnover prone and isn't a great shooter. Their fifth starter Marli Bennett is averaging 1.0 ppg. She is not much of a factor. Off the bench, the Owls three-point shooters are Kimmel and Roberts. Nearly everyone of their shots have been threes this year.

If we attack the press and play our game this should be an easy win.

Terps Overcome Odds to Defeat Northern Iowa, 91-37

The only odds the Terps faced last night was whether or not they would all make it to the gym on time. The game was a complete effort as timely passes, key rebounds and very few costly turnovers led to the easy win. Crystal saw her streak of perfect first halves end in the first minute as she had her shot blocked and after starting the game 1-for-4, finished 7-for-10 (that's 6-for-6 for all the non-math majors). Emery (Jane) also saw her first action since her career outing and finished with 1 point thus knocking her scoring average down to 7.0.

No complaints today as Natty 06 (and team insider) stated in one of the comments that the team hasn't practiced in a while and once they get a chance to practice again we will be a wrecking machine. So until Dec. 31 I will reserve all judgement on the team unless I see a lack of enery out there.

Next up: Temple on Sunday at 2 to complete hell week and hell month. 40 more minutes ladies and then 11 days off (sort of).

Lastly, a moment of silence for the loss of a fellow women's Terp fan on Thursday. Fellow bloggers Eileen and Judith over at The Basketcases (your more fan oriented site) lost their beloved Ripley to the rainbow bridge. Ripley never made an appearance at Comcast (at least not that I know of), but I am sure would bark like crazy when his/her owners were watching Terps' road games. Here's hoping that The Basketcases make their return to Comcast on Sunday.

Game 13: Northern Iowa

Time for game three of four this week as well as battling a stomach bug. Will Coach Frese return to the bench? Tonight's opponent is Northern Iowa and hopefully we are healthy enough to put them away at halftime.(Then again, I thought the same thing about UCSB and MTSU).

Northern Iowa enters the game with a record of 4-2 with their lone losses coming to Minnesota and Iowa. They are averaging 62.0 points per game while allowing 55.7. They are a three-point shooting team, having taken 135 thus far this season (that's 22.5 per game) meaning we must step over the screens instead of under them. The Panthers are a small team with their tallest player at 6'2. If I recall correctly from my trip to the game last year, UNI likes to slow down the tempo and make it a low scoring game. We must attack the basket tonight.

The Panthers leading scorer, Nicole Clausen, comes off the bench and is averaging 12.3 points per game. She leads the team in three-point attempts, too. Jacqui Kalin is the team's point guard and second on the team in scoring at 11.0. She is the assist leader and shoots the second most three pointers. Erin Brocka is their main rebounder at 7.5 rebounds per game and third in scoring. She also will step out to shoot the 3.

We need to play our style of basketball tonight and watch for long rebounds.

Terrapins Fight Off Illness and Raiders, 74-69

We are somehow the unluckiest team in America. Twice this year the team has gotten sick as a whole and for the third time in three years. And not only do they sick, they get violently ill where they are sluggish on the court. It wasn't a pretty game, but we won and I will chalk it up to being sick. I assume no presentations were done due to Brenda being home sick.

Here are some things I have noticed and don't like 12 games into the season. Please note that I have never coached before so I could be completely wrong on some of these.

1. This is Crystal Langhorne: . She is a National Player of the Year candidate and since her return to the starting line up she has missed only 10 shots. Is there a reason she doesn't touch the ball in the paint every possession? It seems that we have gone back to the guard-based offense again. For the second straight game, she went perfect in the first half and then went missing in the second half.
2. Our defensive focus seems to be stopping people cutting to the lanes and neglecting the outside shooters. Many teams have dribbled to the middle and then kicked it out for wide open three-pointers. We are also going under screens instead of over them which gives a shooter an extra inch to shoot.
3. We don't adjust the gameplan to attack an opponent's weakness. My philosophy is to attack players in foul trouble, ours sometimes seems to neglect that fact. Case in point, Brandi Brown had three fouls in the first half and finished with four (which she picked up with 2:30 to go). She was going nuts behind the arc. Would it have hurt to just pound it into the paint and make Langhorne, Harper, Perry and Mingo attack her to get her out of the game? The same thing happened at Rutgers with Vaughn out and Ajavon with 3.
4. Our press break seems to go backwards instead of forwards and we dribble to corners instead of the middle. We like to play uptempo, why when a press happens we slow down? Attack the the middle of the court and expose the press.
5. It's great to see Coach Park has helped our defense, but I am worried about his coaching. In the three games he has gone solo, we have trailed late and needed superhuman efforts to win. It may be time to let Coach Floyd lead the way and see how the team responds, especially if Coach Frese plans on missing some ACC contests.
6. We look like we go to low in our stances on defense in order to prevent the drive by. Unfortunately, it gives us a slow first step and "shrinks" our players allowing the opposing team an easier look at the hoop on jump shots.
7. Will we ever get respect from the refs? We are the number 6 team in the country and the opposing teams get more closer calls on our home court than we do. You think Tennessee and Connecticut walk away from home games against lesser opponents saying "we got screwed again" Also, I am afraid the bench is going to get a technical this year because I think we have been warned at least twice this year by opposing refs. Not a good impression to make before ACC season even starts.

Game 12: Middle Tennessee State

We only had one day to rest after suffering from our only defeat of the year and tonight's opponent, Middle Tennessee State, should help us get back on the winning side of things. Tonight should tell us if this team is of National Championship caliber. Two years ago when they lost to UT, it made them hungrier. Last year, when they lost to Duke, they got down on themselves and it showed the rest of the year. I want to see a complete destruction of the Blue Raiders tonight, so much so that Emery AKA Jane Wallace has another chance to set a career high.

We should have two presentations today. One to honor Crystal as the all-time leading rebounder and one to honor Kristi as a 1,000 point scorer. You will also note that I have updated the records section on the left to give all my loyal readers a chance to follow along as the season progresses.

MTSU enters with a record of 3-3 with wins over Tennessee Tech, Houston and Arizona. They are averaging 70.2 points per game while allowing 66.7. Opponents are shooting 48.3% from the floor and 34.5% from 3. If I remember last year's contest, they like to play pressure defense the entire game, but who knows if that philosophy has changed. Amber Holt is their whole team. You may remember her from last year as she went off agaisnt us in her college debut and we escaped with a win. Coleman is going to have to lock her down like she did to Packer. Holt leads the team in scoring, rebounding, shot attempts and assists. Everyone on the team can shoot a 3, so we must step out on screens. Their tallest player is 6'2 and she only grabs 3.3 rebounds per game. We should win the rebounding edge handily.

To win today:
1. Guard Holt
2. Dictate tempo
3. Establish the Post
4. No stupid turnovers

Rutgers Ends Maryland's Perfect Season, 68-60

Kudos to Rutgers for playing one hell of a game. They came out and did exactly what I thought they would do. Their defense was outstanding and they never got rattled no matter the deficit.

Other the other hand, we got rattled and it showed. Kristi, Marissa and the rest of the team seem frustrated with Rutgers' defense and instead of playing Maryland basketball they fell right into Rutgers' hands. There was a stretch at the end of the first half where we played uptempo and got our shots, but for some reason we went away from that in the second half. On that note, I have three complaints about the second half gameplan.

1. Going small when Vaughn picked up her fourth foul. Vaughn picked her fourth foul at 16:07 and a little over two minutes later with a 9 point lead we went subbed in Ashleigh for Crystal. That gave us four guards and a post player. Rutgers cuts the lead to 2 before we go back to the dual post combination and with that Rutgers was back in the game. Why not put Jade in if you want to go small and let her continue to work her magic down low?
2. Not attacking the paint with Vaughn on the bench and Ajavon with three fouls and in the bonus. Ajavon had three fouls and there was no shot blocker in the middle and we were in the bonus, yet we never drove hard and tried to create contact and get to the free throw line. Plus, with our four guard line up we never reestablished our post game which should have been a gimmie. WHEN WILL OUR PLAYERS LEARN TO FEED THE POST?
3. Staying in the zone too long. The zone was a wonderful idea in the first half as it kept Rutgers from driving to the lane. In the second half, Rutgers made adjustments and we didn't. Once the zone was solved and the score got close we should have switched back to man-to-man to regain our advantage on the boards. One thing I have learned about playing a zone is that it is harder to grab defensive rebounds as there are no block out assignments.

Do I feel Rutgers is a better team than us? No, but I felt they played better than us last night and deserved to win.

Now we have to regroup and win the next 3. Last year that first loss to Duke was our undoing and we pressed the rest of the year. Let's see if a year later has had any impact.

Game 11: Rutgers (ESPN2)

For the first time all season we get two days off in between games and we need it as we head north to Piscataway, NJ to take on #5/6 Rutgers in the Jimmy V Classic. For some reason Rutgers continues to play in this game instead of giving other teams a chance to host it. Rutgers will be the fifth ranked team we have played in 11 games and third top-10 team. Last year, I don't think we played 5 ranked teams all season.

Rutgers is the media darling after being "mocked" by Don Imus last year after losing in the national championship game. Ironically, tomorrow is Don Imus' first day on the air and it would be fitting that his last and first days on the air centered around Rutgers losses. Vivian Stringer made a big deal about this issue in the spring, but now she wants to be known as the team that lost in the Championship. She is also insane as last week told a reporter that the NCAA was out to get her.

Aside from Don Imus Vivian Stringer also hates scoring, whether it be by her team or the opponents. Thus far this year they have scored only 57.6 points per game, while allowing 47.6 ppg. They haven't scored more than 67 all year and haven't allowed more than 60 (and that was because of free throws with no time left on the clock essentially). The last time they scored more than 80 in regulation was 88 last year against Florida. The last time they allowed more than 70 was against Connecticut last February. Opponents shoot 30.4 % and 24.1% from three. They will guard us from the time we walk off the bus.

They are led by sophomore Epiphany Prince, who is more famous for scoring over 100 in a high school game. Prince is a slasher and will occasionally shoot the three. Their dazzling backcourt is seniors Matee Ajavon and Essence Carson. Both are similiar players bu Ajavon may attack the paint more and more of a ballhawk on defense. Chances are she guards Kristi. Carson, which one paper calls their stopper, is coming off hip and groin injuries so whoever is being guarded by her (i'm assuming Coleman or Toliver) needs to make quick sudden movements to check out her range of motion. The key to the team is Kia Vaughn. She is their lone starting post player and if she can control the paint, the guards can play tough defense. Vaughn sometimes decides when she wants to play, but she tends to come alive in the big battles. We must attack Vaughn from the tip and get her out of the game. She can be foul prone. Rutgers' fourth starter is Heather Zurich, who is more of a wing player and will likely be matched up against Harper or Langhorne. She will shoot from outside, but is the team's fifth and final option. This is another match up we must exploit.

To win this game, we must take care of the ball. Rutgers wants to slow this game down to a snail's pace. I don't mind if we try to speed up the tempo, but we can't force passes that aren't there. Second, we must keep Rutgers' guards off the glass. Prince and Carson like to help Vaughn on the glass so we need to box them out on misses. Lastly, Vaughn likes to pretend she is loafing on plays and then dart to the paint for an easy bucket.

If we get to 70, I think we will win this game. Then we get ready for 3 games in 5 days.

Terps Stifle Buckeyes 77-53

Well looks like the extra day of rest paid off on the defensive end as Ohio State was held to 29.6 shooting from the field, the second lowest we have given up this year. I loved the defensive intensity we showed last night as we challenged every one of Ohio State's shots. There was hustle all over the place. We could have rebounded better but when one team misses 50 shots, it's going to be hard to grab them all.

It was great to see Jade rebound from thee subpar performances. She seems to relish playing against these All-American type players. The game also showed that you can try and shut down Kristi, season-low 9 points, but then the inside game with kill you as Crystal, Laura and Jade combined for 39 points. The turnovers are still an issue but we seemed to cut down on them in the second half. I noticed that the turnovers are primarily a result of Toliver trying to play faster than the game. She forced a bunch of passes because she wanted to get going quickly. My only true disappointment was that we didn't keep attacking Lavender (boy wouldn't she look good in Red and not Scarlet?). She picked up a foul at 18:43 on a charge and didn't get another one the rest of the game. She was great inside and we needed to get her out of there.

Player of the Game: Marissa Coleman. Much has been said about her lack of defense but here is the stat line for OSU's star player: 2-11 (2-6 from 3), 0-0 from the line, 6 points. Packer was averaging over 17 points per game and shooting over 50 percent inside the arc. She made no shots inside the arc and one of her three-pointers came when Marissa was on the bench. After Marissa was done shutting down Packer, she scored 14 points and grabbed a crucial last second rebound to keep us from losing the rebounding battle.

Things to work on: Resting again. We have 4 games next week.

Next up: Rutgers on Monday at the RAC at 7 p.m. on ESPN2 as part of the Jimmy V Classic. A win will almost certainly lock up a 1 seed in March and will make C. Vivian Stringer even crazier than she already is.