Emery Wallace waited two years for this past Tuesday night.
The 6-foot-1 redshirt freshman forward for third-ranked Maryland missed all of last season recovering from three knee surgeries. Wallace scored just two points in the Terrapins first five games before scoring a career-high 18 points on 6-of-8 shooting and making all three of her foul shots in a 98-50 win over Loyola.
“My goal is to stay healthy all year long,” Wallace said. “I haven’t been able to play basketball for a year and a half between my three knee surgeries. So my goals are to stay 100 percent back into shape, stay healthy and focus on my guard game. I just want to be on the court and have fun.”
Wallace?s return could not have come at a better time for Maryland (6-0), which is dealing with a rash of injuries. Against Loyola, Maryland was without All-American forward Crystal Langhorne (ankle) and guards Kim Rodgers (knee), Christie Marrone (foot), Sa?de Wiley-Gatewood (knee) and Anjale Barrett (knee).
“We’ve played a slew of games already and we have to be smart with all of our players’ minutes,” Frese said. “Emery has a great attitude how she approaches each and every day and when you can have that kind of mentality you deserve to be on the floor and play some minutes.”
Frese also wants to use Wallace?s perseverance as an example to her injured players.
“It’s all about persevering,” Frese said. “Emery gets that kind of respect from her teammates because of what kind of teammate she is. It was very exciting for me [to watch her play].”
Frese said it is imperative all available players contribute since the team has a daunting schedule during the next two weeks. After playing at Cal-Santa Barbara (2-2) on Friday and UCLA (3-0) on Sunday, the Terrapins host Pittsburgh (3-1) on Tuesday and No. 15 Ohio State (4-0) on Friday before playing at No. 7 Rutgers (2-1) on Dec. 3.
“Everyone is logging a lot of minutes right now,” Frese said. “With the quick turnaround, it’s more important to have team contributions like we had [against Loyola]. This is what’s really a lot of fun.”
