COLLEGE PARK, M.D. – The Maryland Women’s basketball team (16-8, 3-6 ACC) fell to the Virginia Cavaliers (17-6, 6-3 ACC) Monday evening, 82-68, at the Comcast Center. Virginia’s Monica Wright was a scoring machine, exploding for 12 straight points in a key run in the second half that built a lead for the Cavaliers that they would never relinquish. Wright finished with a game high 34 points and also tallied four steals, three assists and two rebounds. The loss to Virginia gave the Terps a split against the Cavaliers for the season, as the Lady Terps beat UVA in Charlottesville, 61-60, back on January 11th.

 

The Terps found themselves trailing by 10 early in the first half as the Terrapins didn’t make a shot from the floor in the first four minutes.  A timeout called by head coach Brenda Frese seemed to spark Maryland as the Terps seemed to show a sense of urgency and hustle and translated into points. The Terps were able to dig out of their slow start and tied the game behind a 15-4 run with just over four minutes remaining in the first half. A few moments later, the Terps captured their first lead of the game, as senior guard Lori Bjork converted on a short jump shot, making the score 28-26. The Terps took a three point lead into the half, 35-32.

Maryland built their lead up to six to start the second half, but their lead would be short lived. Virginia’s Monica Wright singlehandedly recaptured the lead for the Cavaliers behind her 12 straight points and Virginia never trailed again in the game.

“Like we talked about in the locker room, it was the Monica Wright show in the second half” said head coach Brenda Frese. “Obviously she was unstoppable. She just really put her team on her back and it was very difficult obviously. We couldn’t find a way to be able to stop her.”

Maryland was unable to stop Wright, who made difficult shot after difficult shot, even with up to three defenders guarding her. The senior guard was also able to find open teammates when she did draw double and triple teams from the Terps.

“Once we did (find a way to stop her), she was so unselfish in terms of gaining that momentum for her teammates, in terms of getting them wide open shots” Frese said.

Freshman forward Tianna Hawkins led the Terps with 18 points and 10 rebounds.

“I love the toughness, double-double tonight” Frese said. “She is understanding how talented she is and backing it up with the toughness.”

The Terps were able to out rebound Virginia by nine, but 21 turnovers and shooting 2/16 from beyond the arc doomed Maryland. Senior guard Lori Bjork struggled to get open beyond the arc, the result of both Virginia’s defensive intensity and the Terps inability to set screens for her to get an open shot.

“First of all, teams are not going to let me shoot wide open three’s” Bjork said. “They are not going to leave me and I understand that.”

Bjork still finished with 15 points but was just 1/6 from thee point range.

“So I tried to attack the basket a little bit and had some success with that” Bjork said.

The loss drops Maryland to 3-6 in ACC play and is their fifth loss in their last seven games.

The Terps’ next game is Thursday, February 11th, at 7:00 P.M. at Wake Forest.