Maryland Women S Basketball

Kristi Toliver is a quiet, thoughtful soul content to strum her guitar and go to class like any other college senior. Unless you put a basketball into her hands. Then, the Maryland point guard becomes something else entirely - Michael Jordan or Kobe Bryant distilled into a 5-foot-7 female form, the kind of kid who knew from birth she would make the biggest shots in the biggest games. "She's just ruthless," says Dena Evans, one of her basketball mentors. "She can take the heart out of a team with one shot."

The Maryland women's basketball team, which was bypassed Monday night when the NCAA tournament field was selected, will instead play in the National Invitation Tournament, hosting Iona on Friday night at 7 p.m. at Comcast Center. "We have high standards at Maryland and are disappointed to not make the NCAA tournament this year," said coach Brenda Frese, whose Terps are 19-12 overall and finished 5-9 in the Atlantic Coast Conference. "However, I'm proud of this young team for the fight they showed all season.

COLLEGE PARK -- Maryland women's basketball coach Chris Weller says her team is young and inconsistent. Last night, it succeeded in proving her correct.After upsetting seventh-ranked North Carolina State 86-85 in Raleigh last weekend, the Terrapins turned in a woeful performance last night, dropping a 74-63 game to 23rd-ranked Clemson.The Terps (15-9, 8-3 in the Atlantic Coast Conference) were outshot, outhustled and outmanned as the Tigers (17-7, 7-4) ran and jumped over a listless Maryland team.

The Maryland women's basketball team arrived at the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament with uncertain NCAA tournament prospects. The ninth-seeded Terrapins' 83-77 victory over North Carolina on Thursday at Greensboro Coliseum made their case to the selection committee that much more compelling. Sophomore center Lynetta Kizer had a team-high 22 points and 10 rebounds, and freshman forward Tianna Hawkins added 13 points and a team-high 11 rebounds. The Terrapins played the final 5:28 with four players with four fouls, including Kizer and Hawkins, but did not commit an infraction the rest of the way. Instead, Kizer's basket with 3:14 left gave the Terrapins a 71-61 lead.

COLLEGE PARK -- For weeks now, Maryland women's basketball coach Chris Weller has been telling anyone who would listen that she's got a pretty good team.And somebody apparently has heard: Witness the Terps' rise up The Associated Press poll rankings from their position at No. 15 to start the season, to last week's 12th slot to the current No. 9 post, their highest ranking in three years.But the leap into the top 10 has come by virtue of some rather gaudy victory margins over less than top-shelf opposition.

COLLEGE PARK -- It's hard to believe now, especially when she flashes her winning grin, but Jessie Hicks wasn't always this outgoing.Today, Hicks is the 6-foot-4 junior center on the eighth-ranked Maryland women's basketball team. But just a few years ago, she was a gangly teen-ager on the streets of Richmond, Va., taller than just about everyone else she knew and not terribly self-assured.Hicks' confidence was at such an ebb that her older sister had to talk her into going out for the Thompson Middle School girls team when she was a seventh-grader.

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. -- Maryland women's basketball coach Chris Weller believes that at this time of the year, there are no superstitions, no psyche jobs and nothing out of the ordinary that gets you through the postseason.Rather, it is a "refuse to lose" attitude that advances a team toward the Final Four. The eighth-ranked Terps used quite a bit of it to beat Purdue, 64-58, in their Mideast Regional semifinal last night."I like what [ESPN analyst] Mimi Griffin said during the Final Four preview," Weller said last night.

COLLEGE PARK -- It was a scene Maryland coach Chris Weller hopes to see a lot of over the next four years: Kelley Gibson and Sonia Chase celebrating a victory as they walked off the court at the University of Maryland's Cole Field House.Maryland signees Gibson (Talbot County's Easton) and Chase (McDonogh) scored 19 and 12 points, respectively, to lead the Freestaters to an 84-61 victory over the Old Liners in the Maryland Women's Basketball Coaches Association Senior All-Star Game last night.

COLLEGE PARK -- After two weeks of doing a lot of things wrong, the Maryland women's basketball team did enough things right to stun No. 14 Duke, 63-52, last night at Cole Field House.After taking a 29-point loss flush on the chin Saturday at Georgia Tech, Maryland looked to be in for a long night against the Blue Devils, who started the night half a game out of first place in the Atlantic Coast Conference.But the Terps (9-11 overall, 3-7 ACC) put together their best overall effort of the year in ending a five-game losing streak.

COLLEGE PARK -- For the last three years, the Maryland women's basketball team has been pushed around a landscape upon which it once was dominant.Last night's 72-53 win over No. 20 Clemson was perhaps a sign the Terps are ready to do some pushing back, as they stomped the defending Atlantic Coast Conference tournament champion Tigers, who just 10 days before beat then-No. 2 Georgia.Except for a three-minute span in the first half, Maryland (5-1, 1-0 ACC), played as dominating a game as it has since the 1991-92 season, when it was ranked No. 1 for four weeks.

The Maryland women's basketball team finished its regular season with a 94-61 loss to ninth-ranked Florida State on Sunday in a game that juxtaposed the value of veteran leadership against the inconsistency often associated with youth. With three seniors in their starting lineup, the visiting Seminoles withstood Maryland's 6-0 burst to open the game, tied it soon after and used deft 3-point shooting to pull away before halftime. "I think from our end, it was a game that was not very typical of how we play," Maryland coach Brenda Frese said.

In 2006, the Maryland women's basketball team won the NCAA title in Boston, just a short ride from here down the Massachusetts Turnpike. But these Terrapins do not have Kristi Toliver and Crystal Langhorne. On Thursday night, Maryland received a major setback in its attempt to reach its seventh consecutive NCAA tournament, losing, 83-70, to Boston College at Conte Forum. "We put pressure on ourselves because we knew we controlled our destiny if we go out and win this game," guard Lori Bjork said.

COLLEGE PARK - -For the Maryland women's basketball team, playing at Comcast Center used to mean victory was all but ensured. It had won every game there for almost three years and started this season with 12 consecutive victories at home. Now, after a 58-57 loss to sixth-ranked Duke on Sunday night, Maryland might be seeking comfort on the road. Despite erasing an 11-point deficit late in the second half, the Terrapins (14-6, 2-4 Atlantic Coast Conference) dropped their second in a row at Comcast and third straight overall.

COLLEGE PARK - - The Maryland women's basketball team normally won't encounter opponents that can match its height inside, but Thursday's game against Boston College was an exception. So instead of relying on brawn, the Terrapins used cunning and quickness for a 72-65 victory before 4,773 at Comcast Center. Diandra Tchatchouang scored a game-high 18 points for Maryland, which extended its school-record home-court winning streak to 48 games and moved to 10-0 against Boston College.

RALEIGH, N.C. - -Road games have confounded the Maryland women's basketball team this season, and that trend continued in a 73-45 loss to North Carolina State on Thursday night at Reynolds Coliseum. In the Atlantic Coast Conference opener for both schools, Maryland dropped its third of four games away from Comcast Center, ended its four-game winning streak and lost for just the second time in 11 games. The Terrapins ended their five-game winning streak against the Wolfpack after entering with two straight victories here.

The goal for the Maryland women's basketball team Sunday night in the opening round of the Terrapin Classic was simple: Whatever you do, keep your eyes off the scoreboard. The challenge was more daunting than it might have seemed, given that the Terrapins were playing Stony Brook, a bottom-dwelling team from the America East, on a night when seemingly everything was clicking. Maryland (10-2) scored the first eight points of the game and led by 20 at halftime, but what impressed coach Brenda Frese the most about her team's 76-44 win at Comcast Center was that the players achieved their primary objective.

CHARLOTTE, N.C.-- Twice this season, the Maryland women's basketball team had led North Carolina State at halftime, only to watch the advantage melt away into disappointing losses.But, in perhaps their most satisfying win of the season, the Terps made a halftime lead stand up, beating the ninth-ranked Wolfpack, 61-48, last night.With some grit, solid defense and a trio of determined seniors, sixth seed Maryland (15-12) withstood a stern challenge to earn its first berth in the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament semifinals in four years.

The Western Maryland women's basketball team held off a rally by host Muhlenberg over the final two minutes to win, 53-52, last night in the Centennial Conference semifinals. Western Maryland's Kelly Cramp made a foul shot with 1:40 left for a 53-50 lead, but Muhlenberg's Susan Marchiano cut the margin to one on a jumper and then made a steal with seven seconds left, but couldn't convert. Western Maryland (21-6) vies for its first conference championship against visiting Swarthmore at 2 p.m. Saturday.

COLLEGE PARK - -Every game, it seems, brings a new lesson for the young Maryland women's basketball team. Earlier this week, the Terrapins had to learn how to survive when their shots weren't falling. On Thursday night, they had to figure out how to persevere after wasting a 26-point lead and repeatedly throwing the ball away. Maryland (3-0) leaned on Lynetta Kizer and Diandra Tchatchouang and pulled away for an 84-67 victory over Old Dominion in front of an announced 4,681 at Comcast Center.