SWEET SIXTEEN —Terps Move On After Hard Fought Win Over Louisville 72-68
Just a great college basketball game last night before an enthusiastic hoe crowd at Comcast. Alyssa Thomas was taken out of her comfort zone last night , but a strong 24 point effort by Laurin Mincy led the way for a crucial win.
Laurin Mincy scored 24 points, Tianna Hawkins had 15 points and 14 rebounds, and second-seeded Maryland beat seventh-seeded Louisville 72-68 Monday night to reach the program’s 13th Sweet Sixteen.
The Terrapins trailed 64-59 with 6 minutes left before closing with a 13-4 run and limiting Louisville to only one field goal.
Maryland (30-4) will face the defending champion Texas A&M Sunday at noon or 2:30 p.m. in Raleigh, N.C.
Early on when the Terps were trailing 6-0, Brenda inserted Kim Rodgers into the lineup. Immediately a confusing 3/4 zone press was beaten, the team settled down, and the Terps quickly got back into the game. Shoni Schimmel , Louisville’s star player was certainly intriguing to watch. She fired up 25 shots, making only 8 but kept Louisville’s offense at a breakneck speed.
Opposing coach (and former Frese assistant Jeff Walz commented post game: “I’d first like to thank everyone here at Maryland. You guys have been great to me again, it’s been nice to come back and see all the friendly people from the support staff that I’ve known. I’d just like to congratulate Maryland. I thought that they came up with some loose ball plays at the end of the game that were big. Things we just knew that we had to come up with if we were going to have a chance to be in this game, they made those plays. It was a well-played game. I’d like to thank Becky Burke for a great four years. She’s the first one to survive four years of me, congratulations Becky. We just have an unbelievable group of 10 players that I’ve been fortunate enough to coach the last two months of this season. It’s a group that fought, and we continued to fight right until the end. There were plenty of times where we could have folded when their crowd got involved. They took a lead in the second half, but we just continued to fight.
Just a great college basketball game last night before an enthusiastic hoe crowd at Comcast. Alyssa Thomas was taken out of her comfort zone last night , but a strong 24 point effort by Laurin Mincy led the way for a crucial win.
