Terps Look for Series Sweep with Wake, Host Deacs Thursday
2/12/2003 7:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Feb. 12, 2003
Game 23
Thursday, Feb. 13 ~ 7 p.m.
Terps 9-13 (3-8 ACC) vs. Wake Forest 10-11 (1-10 ACC)
At Comcast Center (17,950): College Park, Md.
Live On the Radio: WMUC 88.1 FM (College Park)
Live On the Internet: www.wmucsports.com
Maryland's Next Game:
Sunday, Feb. 16 ~ 1 p.m.
Terps at Florida State
at Tallahassee-Leon County Civic Center (12,200): Tallahassee, Fla.
Live On TV: Comcast, Fox Sports South, Sunshine Networks
Live On the Radio: WMUC 88.1 FM (College Park)
Live On the Internet: www.wmucsports.com
The Terps return home on Thursday, Feb. 13, to meet Wake Forest at 7 p.m. after a two-game road stint at Georgia Tech and Clemson over the weekend. Maryland enters the contest with a 9-13 (3-8 ACC) record. Wake Forest is 10-11 overall, and 1-10 in conference action. Thursday's game can be found at 88.1 FM (College Park) and on the Internet at www.wmucsports.com.
Next Up: Florida State, Virginia
Maryland travels to Tallahassee, Fla., for a match-up with the red hot Seminoles on Sunday, Feb. 16, at 1 p.m. That game will be broadcast by Mike Hogewood (play-by-play) and Jenny Boucek (color) on Comcast, Fox Sports South, and Sunshine networks. All three will broadcast the game live.
The Terrapins return home on Thursday, Feb. 20, vs. Virginia. That game will also be broadcast on live Fox Sports South and Sunshine networks. Comcast will air the game at 1:30 a.m. the night of the game.
The Maryland/Wake Series
The Terrapins have a 41-11 advantage in the all-time series with Wake Forest, and beat Wake Forest 75-73 earlier this season in Winston-Salem. Maryland is 7-3 in its last 10 meetings with Wake Forest and has won its last two vs. the Demon Deacons. Maryland has won four of the last six meetings in College Park, including two straight.
Going For Four... or More
Maryland's Brenda Frese has already given fans a number of positive signs towards a bright future of this rebuilding program and is on her way to another. Despite being 3-8 in the conference right now, Frese needs to lead Maryland to only one more conference win this season to tie last year's ACC win total and two more to finish either tied with or better than the squad's record three out of the past four years. And that's with five conference games remaining. Here is where the Terps' finished over the past five seasons, including 2002-03:
The Terps' Record Over The Past Five Years
Season Overall ACC 1998-99 6-21 3-13 1999-00 16-15 5-11 2000-01 17-12 8-8 2001-02 13-17 4-12 2002-03 9-13 3-8Stolen!
Maryland's Renneika Razor (New York, N.Y.) leads the league in steals this season, averaging 3.5 per game, and edging Duke's Alana Beard by 0.41 steals a game. Beard, the 2002 ACC Player of the Year, is averaging 3.09 steals per game.
Razor is leading the competition in ACC games as well, averaging a 3.45 steals per game in conference games, 1.0 steals more than any other player in the conference.
Razor was 17th nationally in steals per game heading into last week.
Razor Climbs All-Time Lists
Senior Renneika Razor continues to climb the UM career charts for steals, averaging 3.5 per game this season. Her 3.45 steals per game in ACC contests leads the conference this season by 1.0 steals per game. Razor set her new career high for steals in the Florida State (1/16) loss with eight and is currently fourth on Maryland's all-time list in that category with 256. Razor's total is also good enough for No. 22 all-time in ACC history.
Maryland's All-Time Steals Chart
1. 315 Debbie Lytle (1980-83)
2. 309 Sonia Chase (1995-98)
3. 293 Deanna Tate (1986-89)
4. 256 Renneika Razor (2000-present)
5. 241 Myra Waters (1979-82)
6. 236 Chequita Wood (1983-86)
7. 220 Vicky Bullett (1986-89)
8. 212 Lisa Brown (1985-88)
9. 190 Tiffany Brown (1997-00)
10. 188 Stephanie Cross (1995-98)
Razor Cracks 1,000 Pts
In Maryland's 69-58 loss at Virginia, Renneika Razor became the 20th player in Maryland history to break the 1,000 point plateau. She scored 16 points and ended the afternoon with 1,001 career points. The senior guard currently has 1,071 career points, including 343 this season. Razor is 42 points away from the No. 18 spot all-time on UM's scoring chart where Jane Zivalich (1988-91) now sits with 1,113. Razor also has over 500 career rebounds, grabbing 554 to date, and needs 27 more to crack the Top 15 all-time for that Maryland list.
Oliver Bursts on the Scene
2002 AP National Coach of the Year Brenda Frese added her first recruit to the Terrapin roster this summer in 6-3 junior college transfer Delvona Oliver (Euclid, Ohio). Oliver, a center from Cincinnati State Technical and Community College, met all of her requirements and was eligible for the first time this season for the Gatorade Holiday Classic. She wasted no time making the impact her coaches said she would, and is averaging 12.5 ppg. She narrowly missed a double-double against Cleveland State with 16 points and nine rebounds and again at NC State with 19 points and nine rebounds. She is grabbing a team-high 6.2 rebounds per game, including a career-high 16 at Virginia.
Oliver earned second-team All-America recognition from the National Junior College Athletic Association and averaged 18.1 points, 10.5 rebounds and 2.5 blocks per game in the 2000-01 season. She earned most valuable player honors at the Ohio Community College Athletic Conference postseason tournament.
Lighting It Up
Despite her freshman status, Chrissy Fisher (Rumson, N.J.) showed she has what it takes from beyond the arc when she exploded against North Carolina, hitting 6-7 from long range. Fisher's .857 for the game is a new Maryland school record. The previous mark was .667 and was held by five players.
Fisher followed it up with a 3-5 shooting performance behind the arc and 13 points in Maryland's overtime win vs. NC State on Feb. 1. Her two-game performance earned her ACC co-Rookie of the Week honors with North Carolina's La'Tangela Atkinson.
On the road this past weekend, Fisher posted double digits again marking her fourth and fifth straight outings with 10 or more points. Her 20 points against Clemson tied her career high previously set against North Carolina.
Going Up!
The beginning of Maryland's new era in women's basketball appears to be headed in the right direction. With an 9-13 mark and a 3-8 conference record, Maryland has made the following strides this year en route to turning the corner back to national prominence.
Maryland won the first-ever game, men's or women's, in the Terps' new home, the Comcast Center. Senior Renneika Razor scored the first basket in the Comcast Center, en route to the Terps' 80-72 win over Loyola.
The Terps broke 100 points in a game for the first time since Dec. 28, 1993, when it downed UMES 102-31. Maryland's 104-point output was the highest since Dec. 1, 1992 vs. Drexel. That game was a 121-52 win for the Terps, and still stands as the school record for points in a game.
Maryland won its first ACC road game since Feb. 19, 2001, when UM grabbed a 69-53 win at Wake Forest. The Terrapins held on for ACC road win No. 1 in 10 tries. Last year's 0-8 effort on the conference road trail was the first time in program history the Terps finished without an ACC road win.
A crowd of 5,078, the largest at a Maryland women's basketball game since Feb. 24, 1996, was in attendance for the Maryland/NC State game on Feb. 1. The Terps won 74-72 in overtime. The last time the Terrapins hosted a home crowd that large was when 5,750 people were in attendance when No. 9 Virginia came to town.
Welcome Home
Welcome to the Comcast Center... Maryland held the grand opening for the new home of women's and men's basketball on Oct. 10 when the university celebrated the official ribbon-cutting at the Comcast Center. New head coach Brenda Frese lined up with Maryland Governor Parris Glendening, University President C.D. "Dan" Mote, men's basketball bench boss Gary Williams, Athletics Director Deborah A. Yow, and many others to address the crowd of over 1,200 invitees to the grand opening.
The Comcast Center's seating capacity will be an outstanding 17,100 with the building including such amenities as:
Frese Takes the Helm
Brenda Frese named third head coach ever for Maryland women... Maryland introduced 2002 AP National Coach of the Year Brenda Frese as its new head coach on April 2, 2002.
Frese brings a history of turning programs around with her to Maryland. Frese began her head coaching career at Ball State in 1999 and took a program that had been 66-169 in the past nine seasons to records of 16-13 and 19-9 and two NCAA tournaments before moving to Minnesota in 2001.
Frese orchestrated the best one-year turnaround in Big Ten history, taking a team that had gone 8-20 in 2000-01 and guiding them to a 22-8 record last season. Her turnaround heroics ended in the NCAA second round against the ACC's own North Carolina Tar Heels, but her amazing reversal of Minnesota's fortunes still earned Frese AP National Coach of the Year honors.
Frese coached her 100th career game on Jan. 5 against Georgia Tech. Frese's Terps earned the 71-63 victory by leading the Jackets, who were on the verge of being ranked, from beginning to end.
