Rebounds

Freshman Crystal Langhorne joined the Maryland women's basketball team as the top-ranked power forward in the nation and a first-team McDonald's, Parade, and Street & Smith's selection. Those accolades, however, didn't mean much during the Terps' second game of the season. Langhorne, a 6-foot-3 center from Willingboro, N.J., was starting her first home game against Siena at Comcast Center . But she was faring badly on the defensive end of the court. Maryland coach Brenda Frese, displeased with what she would later call Langhorne's "matador defense," pulled the freshman and played her for just 20 minutes in the Terps' 73-52 win. "I wasn't playing defense, and she took me out," recalled Langhorne, who posted six points, three rebounds and three turnovers in one of her shortest outings of the year.

Wei-Yin Chen probably would have completed seven innings on Tuesday night if it hadn't been for a 48-minute rain delay that ended his night with one out (and one on) in the seventh. He pitched well enough to get a win - nine  hits, no walks two earned runs in 6 1/3 innings - but Alex Gordon's two-run homer against Brian Matusz tied the game at 3-3 in the seventh. Perhaps more important than the personal 'W' is that Chen (3.40 ERA) bounced back from a rough outing on Wednesday in Seattle in which he gave up five earned runs in four innings.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Outside the Tennessee women's basketball team's locker room in Knoxville is a sign that simply reads: "Offense fills seats, defense wins games and rebounding wins championships."The statement may be cliched, but the fourth-ranked Lady Vols will hang their fourth national championship banner from the Thompson-Boling Arena rafters in large measure because they proved it true in their 83-65 win over No. 5 Georgia in last night's NCAA title game, in both the literal and the metaphorical.

This week, hundreds of Chicago workers organized a major labor strike, demanding a wage floor of $15 an hour and the right to unionize. Their protests come on the heels of the largest strike in the fast food industry's history, which took place in December in New York City, and a nation-wide Walmart strike to protest what workers felt were unfair wages and treatment. Here in Baltimore, workers have also begun organizing around the idea of "fair development" - calling for higher wages and other benefits.

COLLEGE PARK - Dino Gregory Sr. imparted some basketball wisdom when his son and namesake returned to the University of Maryland for his sophomore season after sitting on the bench the final 16 games as a freshman. It came last summer, when the former Mount St. Joseph star spent his mornings running and his father, who played at Long Beach State in the early 1980s and later professionally, rode a bicycle behind him. "I told Dino, 'If you ever feel like not doing the morning run, think about last year,' " the elder Gregory said yesterday.

It begins with an errant shot.Underneath the basket, Monica Logan will rise above the crowd of players to grab the ball. On long-range misses, the number 50 on the back of her jersey expands as her arms reach beyond those of her opponents.Fourteen times a game, the cycle ends with another earned possession by Logan, the nation's leading rebounder and the starting center for the UMBC women's basketball team.From near or from afar, she denies second-shot opportunities for the other team or creates them for UMBC.

Natasha Parks scored 35 points and grabbed 12 rebounds to power visiting Coppin State past Morgan State, 67-59, yesterday. Lisa Briggs had 18 points and 13 rebounds.The Eagles (7-11), who turned the ball over 32 times, held a 55-48 edge in rebounds. The Bears (2-13) made only 25 percent of their shots in the second half (11-for-44).* Mount St. Mary's 82, Long Island 67: Keisha McCatty scored 21 points, including 15 in the second half, to lead visiting Mount St. Mary's (11-7, 8-3) to a victory over Long Island (6-12, 3-8)

The key to the season opener between Francis Scott Key and Liberty was not so much about who could put points on the board as much as it was about who could control the boards.Both teams lofted air balls and missed layups, but the Lions grabbed 26 more rebounds than the visiting Eagles to escape with a 41-30 win in Eldersburg last night.Despite battling a Francis Scott Key starting five that boasted a two-inch advantage at nearly every position, Liberty outrebounded the Eagles, 45-19, and controlled the tempo of the game.

O.J. Mayo had 22 points and a career-high 16 rebounds and Mike Conley produced 18 and eight assists to lead the host Memphis Grizzlies to an 85-80 victory over the short-handed New Orleans Hornets (30-19) last night. Hakim Warrick had 15 points and a season-high 14 rebounds, and Marc Gasol added 10 points and 10 rebounds for Memphis (15-36), which has won two straight and four of its past five. Peja Stojakovic scored 23 points to lead the Hornets, who were without their top three players in Chris Paul, Tyson Chandler and David West.

Third-ranked Annapolis is so good and deep, with four starters averaging 10 points or more a game, that on a night when they are misfiring, opponents can not allow the Panthers second shots. And it's almost imperative that foes make theirs.A valiant effort by No. 16 Broadneck came up short last night as the host Panthers (13-0 overall, 7-0 league) decisively out-rebounded the Bruins (7-6, 4-3) in the second half and went on to a hard-earned victory, 54-43.After out-rebounding the Panthers, 13-12 in the first half, the Bruins were no match the final 16 minutes with Annapolis holding a 24-10 edge on the boards, 36-23 for the game.

No. 7 Notre Dame made its argument Tuesday for why it still belongs in discussions about the best men's lacrosse team in NCAA Division I. One day removed from falling out of the top spot in The Baltimore Sun's rankings, the Fighting Irish (7-2) rolled to a 17-5 neutral-site victory over a less-experienced Golden Eagles (2-5) squad at Loyola Academy's Hoerster Field in Wilmette, Ill. The Golden Eagles, who started seven underclassmen - including a half-dozen freshmen - kept things close early after a fairly pedestrian first quarter in which both sides tried to control the tempo by being selective on the attacking end. Co-captain Ben Dvorak got Marquette on the scoreboard with 40 seconds left in the opening quarter to tie the score at 1. It didn't stay even for long, however, as Notre Dame's John Scioscia ended the first quarter with the first of his six goals on the day. The score remained that way until near the midway point of the second quarter.

The Towson men's lacrosse team took just one lead in Tuesday night's game against Navy, and that's all the Tigers would need. Sophomore midfielder Greg Cuccinello's goal with 10:28 remaining in the fourth quarter gave Towson an 8-7 victory over the Midshipmen before an announced 824 at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium. The Tigers trailed for 38 minutes, 42 seconds - including a 3-0 deficit after the first quarter - but Cuccinello's heroics led them to the program's first win at Navy.

Teira Pendleton's fierce competitive streak shows on her face in every Poly basketball game. Intensely focused and in the moment, her physical inside presence has been a factor on both sides of the ball as the No. 8 Engineers advanced to the Class 4A state semifinals for the second year in a row. The 5-foot-8 junior forward-guard leads a young team into Thursday's 3 p.m. state semifinal at UMBC against Walt Whitman with 12.5 points and 8.4 rebounds...

Coming out of a quiet stretch - which included being suspended for a game for violating team policy - Wells Stanwick bounced back in resounding fashion Tuesday night. The Johns Hopkins sophomore attackman set career highs in goals (five) and assists (four), powering the No. 10 Blue Jays' men's lacrosse team to a 19-9 thumping of visiting Mount St. Mary's at Homewood Field. Stanwick's performance - he needed just five shots to match his goal output from his first three games this season - was especially timely as Johns Hopkins (4-1)

Alyssa Thomas scored a career-high 30 points and added 12 rebounds to lead No. 8 Maryland to an 86-61 win over host Boston College on Thursday night. Tianna Hawkins grabbed her 1,000th career rebound in the win. Hawkins scored 15 points, Malina Howard had 11, and Alicia DeVaughn added 10 points and eight rebounds for Maryland (22-4, 13-2 Atlantic Coast Conference). Thomas notched her 16th double double of the season, which leads the ACC. With four rebounds, Hawkins became the third woman - and the fourth player, male or female - in school history to grab 1,000 rebounds.

Reservoir junior Zelor Massaquoi admits to being only 5 feet 5 1/2 inches tall, but she can outmaneuver much taller opponents and leads the Howard County girls basketball league in rebounding. Her tenacity emerges all over the court as she averages 12.6 points, 10.1 rebounds, 2.4 assists and 2.9 steals for the No. 13 Gators (16-3), who open the Class 3A East regional playoffs Monday night at home. Massaquoi, who plays Amateur Athletic Union basketball with the Columbia Ravens, wants to play the sport in college.

Erica Haywood, Towson Catholic's 6-foot-2 girls basketball center, is averaging a triple double for the second straight season. After six games, she is contributing 23.2 points, 18.7 rebounds and 12 blocks, as well as three assists a game to the Owls (5-1).Last week, the senior had 20 points, 10 rebounds and 15 blocks in a 52-37 loss to Parkville; 36 points, 27 rebounds, 14 blocks and six assists in a 93-31 win over Pompei; and 25 points, 25 rebounds and 17 blocks in a 62-23 win over Glenelg Country School.

LANDOVER -- Pervis Ellison will never come right out and say that he's being vindicated. He's much too unassuming for that kind of braggadocio.But his play in the middle of the Washington lineup is speaking volumes. Last night, he carried the Bullets to a 127-118 double-overtime victory over the Indiana Pacers at the Capital Centre.Ellison scored 27 points and pulled down a career-high 22 rebounds -- 16 after halftime -- to pull the Bullets back into the game.The 6-foot-10 center, in his third year from Louisville, is fewer than 12,000 votes behind the New York Knicks' Patrick Ewing in fan balloting for Eastern Conference centers for next month's All-Star Game in Orlando, Fla.The voting totals and Ellison's statistics (20.4 points and 11.9 rebounds per game)

The Digital Harbor starting five certainly did its part in Wednesday's Baltimore City Division I girls basketball championship game. A'Lexus Harrison, Tye Smith, Miqueara Lewis, Infiniti Alston and Jaida Scarborough combined to play almost the entire game against No. 7 City. Harrison led the way with 19 points and 16 rebounds, but everyone pitched in as No. 5 Digital Harbor won, 60-43, in the title game at Baltimore City Community College. Digital Harbor coach Patrick McDonald kept the starters in for all but about four minutes in the game, and each one helped out. Smith added 16 points and six assists, while Lewis had 12 points and nine rebounds.

Long before the season started, the Maryland men's basketball team spent two grueling days testing its stamina and willpower by training with a former Navy SEAL under the hot September sun. The Terps sweated through push-ups and leg lifts. They labored to tread water in the campus pool wearing heavy, gray sweatshirts. Each player was asked to pick up a teammate and carry him across a field on their shoulders. It was a time when bonds were formed and bodies were tested. Four months later - after a loss to Virginia on Feb. 10 that Coach Mark Turgeon said Monday represented "rock bottom" - Turgeon asked the players to recall those exercises and their messages of commitment and leadership.