SPOKANE, Wash.-- --In March, every senior feels it. By this point, it's as much a fear as it is a reality. But Crystal Langhorne never even let on.
Sure, it crossed her mind before the game, but there wasn't a single second last night anyone in Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena could have thought that Langhorne might be playing her final game. Langhorne was prepared to single-handedly carry the Maryland women's basketball team to victory over Vanderbilt, even though she didn't really have to. There were plenty of willing contributors in last night's win in the NCAA tournament's regional semifinal.
As she has been throughout the postseason, Langhorne was the most reliable and consistent Terp, ensuring that her career will extend at least a couple of more days. With last night's 80-66 win, the Terps will face the winner of last night's Pittsburgh-Stanford contest.
If they're capable of cutting and pasting last night's performance into tomorrow's time slot, a trip to the Final Four in Tampa, Fla., might be on the horizon. After opening the NCAA tournament with a pair of lackluster wins on their home court, the Terps finally played with a sense of purpose, with an energy they seem to keep in their back pocket until the right opponent forces them to pull it out.
Langhorne set the tone last night, powering through double teams, providing a big, inviting target for point guard Kristi Toliver and always in the perfect spot beneath the hoop. Her court sense is spot on - you could calibrate Global Positioning System settings by her positioning in the paint.
She's as big a reason as any that her point guard boasted, "I felt like Tom Brady."
"Everybody was just connecting," said Toliver, who can credit Langhorne for four of her eight assists last night. "We had great chemistry."
Langhorne's 28 points marked the second most she has scored this season, and her 12 field goals were a season high. The fact that such big totals are coming in the postseason is really no surprise.
"Crystal's obviously our go-to player," coach Brenda Frese said. "The fact that any pass you throw in there, she's going to catch. And I thought really, as physical as it was inside, she was able to make so many plays."
While the Terps created a few extra obstacles for themselves in their first two tournament games, Langhorne has been a steadying force. She scored 25 and 18 in the previous two games, grabbing 12 rebounds in each - a stark contrast with last year's tournament, in which Langhorne scored just 12 and 14 points in the Terps' two tournament games.
