Story By: Sol Tucker
Photos By: Sol Tucker
San Antonio, TX–
After making quick work of Mount St. Mary’s in the First Round of the NCAA Road to the Final Four, the Terps and Brenda Freese have done much of the same with the Alabama knocking them off to advance to the Sweet 16.
Playing in a much smaller venue on the campus of St. Mary’s University just outside of San Antonio, the Terps started out in another quick paced fashion out scoring the Crimson Tide 15-6 until the first timeout at the 4:43 mark of the first quarter.
Alabama had a tough time adjusting to the defensive presence the Terps had inside the paint that forced them to call another time out with 3:54 remaining in the first quarter trailing 20-6.
The second quarter started a lot like the first one for the Terps, fast and furious. The Crimson Tide found a few quick answers in the form of couple of three pointers and cut into the lead at 36-14 with 7:40 remaining in the quarter.
Maryland keep on the gas and built a 54-25 lead at halftime and never really looked back from there.
The Terps were led in the first half by Faith Masonius off the bench with 12 points off the 5-5 from the field.
“Obviously its fun when you’ve got your bench coming out and destroying,” said Masonius, who added a career-high 16 points. “That’s a championship team right there.”
Starting the second half, the Terps continued to run the game at their own pace and had built a 69-39 lead when the Crimson Tide called a time out early in the third to help try and control the run by the Terps, it again did not work.
“We just continued with the pressure and forced them to make quite a few mistakes that led to several quick baskets for us and that is how it was much of the first half as well, said Terps Head Coach Brenda Frese
Alabama continued to make mistakes and turned the ball over three times early in the fourth quarter leading to 4 straight Terps points and a 80-46 lead with 9:03 remaining. Crystal Walker would answer back for the Crimson Tide cutting the lead to 80-48, but this would be the only points they would get in over two minutes.
The final few minutes of the fourth you could see that Alabama was gassed and had little left to answer this pressing Terps team as they cruised their way into the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2017.
Maryland will await the winner of the Texas vs UCLA game tonight.
