Maryland women shake off jitters to run away from Albany, 91-58
Maryland women shake off jitters to run away from Albany, 91-58:-With defending national champion South Carolina and perennial title contender Connecticut looming in the next nine days, the Maryland women’s basketball team was happy to start its perilous nonconference schedule by establishing some momentum.
The No. 15 Terrapins glided to a 91-58 victory over Albany on Friday night at Xfinity Center in their season opener, their first test after losing the three leading scorers from last season.
Maryland Coach Brenda Frese, in her 16th season in College Park, knows her team begins the season with plenty of “unknowns,” but this looked like typical Terrapin dominance for long stretches of opening night. They shook off some first quarter jitters, turning the game into a blowout by the second half.
“It helps us to get a game under our belt, and I just think every game is going to help us this season,” Frese said. “The next game on our schedule is South Carolina, and I know that’ll be an easy game for our players to get up to.”
Sophomore guard Blair Watson (16 points), senior guard Kristen Confroy (14) and junior forward Brianna Fraser (14) anchored the offense. Confroy is one of just two returning starters, alongside sophomore guard Kaila Charles.
Charles — last year’s fourth-leading scorer — had 13 points on 15 shots, one of six Terrapins in double figures. On the defensive end, sophomore forward Stephanie Jones pulled down 18 rebounds, 10 of which were offensive boards. Fraser chipped in with 10 rebounds.
“A big thing we’ve talked about is nobody has to do it by themselves this year,” Frese said of the balanced scoresheet. “ . . . That’s kind of the neat thing of how our team’s been built. They’re going to collectively do it together this season.”
Frese has said she expects to learn a lot about her young team throughout this nonconference schedule. She got a look at their ability to bounce back Friday night, as the Terps started sloppily against the Great Danes, led by former Maryland assistant Joanna Bernabei-McNamee, who was on Frese’s staff for the 2006 national championship.
Maryland attributed the poor start up to nerves. The Terrapins committed 10 turnovers in the first quarter and ended tied at 14 before tightening their defense and outscoring the Great Danes, 30-4, in the second period.
The Terps, though they broke away with ease after the opening period, ended with 21 turnovers. Ball security topped Frese’s list of priorities as the team turns its attention to South Carolina.
“You can’t have 21 turnovers in a competitive contest that comes down to possessions, and that’s an area that I thought we got better as the game went on,” Frese said. “I chalk this one up to the nervousness that we won’t have Monday because we’ll be ready to come out from the start otherwise you’re going to dig yourself in a big hole. We’ve got to be better in a lot of areas, especially taking care of the ball and defensively. We had some really easy breakdowns tonight that we can’t afford to have.
“Sometimes we make moments bigger than what we should . . . we just make it a bigger moment in our mind, but I did think that we settled down and really kind of came together. I thought that was the difference in the second quarter.”
Friday’s opener also provided a first look at point guard Channise Lewis.
Lewis, the team’s lone freshman, arrived on campus earlier this summer and played with the group overseas at the World University Games when Maryland represented Team USA. Frese is having her share primary ballhandling duties with sophomore guard Sarah Myers to ease Lewis’s transition to the college game, but the newbie didn’t look like she needed much help Friday.
Lewis scored 10 points and had four assists in 25 minutes. Myers, a converted wing, had four points and two assists in 19 minutes.
“It didn’t feel like my first season game,” Lewis said, “since I’ve been here since the summer, with the Taiwain trip and everything. So I was just carrying that confidence from Taiwan over to the first game.”
Source:-https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/maryland-women-shake-off-jitters-run-away-from-albany-91-58/2017/11/10/b9e2023c-c64d-11e7-aae0-cb18a8c29c65_story.html
