Nashville, TN—
The Maryland Terps women found themselves in a familiar place tonight against Notre Dame, but found themselves with a unfamiliar place at the finish. The Terps have been on this stage once before in 2006 and once before against the Fighting Irish this season where they fell by just four points 87-83, so many thought this game would have been a bit closer than it was tonight.. Tonight, however was a much different story, in fact it was an entire different performance by Maryland all together as they were trounced 87-61 sending the Lady Irish on to a match-up against Stanford or UCONN.
“Obviously, the better team won tonight,” Maryland Coach Brenda Frese said. “I thought Notre Dame just did a terrific job, really took advantage. I thought they set the tone from the first possession with the offensive rebounding, being dominant on the glass.
“Really when the season ends, only one team gets to end with a win, so couldn’t be more proud of the ride this team took us on.”
The Terps never were able to keep this game in check and the lead swelled to 48-31 going into intermission when Madison Cable got an open look from beyond the three-point arc and swished the attempt at the halftime buzzer.
Before that field goal, the Fighting Irish got a layup from Reimer, and Notre Dame Coach Muffet McGraw called a timeout to set up her defense.
That decision led to Mincy’s missed three-pointer during a first half in which Maryland trailed in second-chance points (12-0), offensive rebounding (11-1) and points off turnovers (17-2).
Kayla McBride scored 19 of her 28 points in the first half of Notre Dame’s victory over Maryland while Jewell Loyd added 16 points and nine rebounds. The Irish out-rebounded Maryland 50-21.
“When you get this far without a loss, you want to just keep going,” McBride said.