For most teams, a 22-3 record and a top 10 ranking is considered a highly successful season.
But when you are the defending national champions, the bar is raised to a completely different level. That is the situation the Maryland women?s basketball team is dealing with after suffering its first two-game losing streak in nearly two years.
Maryland, which slipped from No. 4 to 6 in the latest national rankings, got back on the winning track with a 71-39 victory Sunday against Boston College. But following losses against No. 2 North Carolina and unranked Georgia Tech last week and No. 1 Duke last month, the Terps are showing signs of vulnerability.
Still, Maryland coach Brenda Frese said she is still looking at the bigger picture and feels like her team regrouped following Sunday?s dominating win, when the Terps held the Eagles to 14 percent shooting in the second half.
“I think we improved, and in the big picture, that?s what we?re striving for,” Frese said. “Especially with our defensive intensity from the first half to the second half, I thought we had great focus. We have to have that kind of consistency. We need to climb back and play for 40 minutes.”
Frese said part of that consistency is cutting down on costly turnovers, getting all of the players on the court involved and not rushing their shots. In the losses to North Carolina and Georgia Tech, Maryland committed 14 first-half turnovers, which force the team to play from behind in the final 20 minutes.
“I think we are slowly starting to get our swagger back,” Frese said. “I thought we did a great job of getting our teammates open [Sunday], being unselfish and looking to attack more. I thought we were more aggressive in our press.”
Maryland sophomore forward Marissa Coleman said the losses hurt, but that the team has taken something away from each one.
“None of us likes losing and it?s not something that we are accustomed to,” Coleman said. “I think every day we come into practice, we?re going harder. People say you learn a lot more from losing than you do winning, and we have definitely learned a lot from those three losses.”
MARYLAND NOTES
» Sophomore guard Kristi Toliver enters this week shooting 88.4 percent from the free-throw line, the second-best mark for a season in team history. Last year, she set the school mark by shooting 89.1 percent.
» Toliver is also moving up Maryland?s single-season record list for three-pointers made. She currently is in sixth place with 53 on the year. She is 16 behind record-holder Tiffany Brown, who hit 69 during the 1999-2000 season.
