July 18, 2012

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COLLEGE PARK, Md. - The 2005-06 season was a long journey of growth for the Maryland Terrapins. In just her fourth season in College Park, head coach Brenda Frese helped make the Terps a team to be reckoned with once again. The Terrapins beat No. 1 North Carolina in early February, but had still not beaten No. 2 Duke in Frese's tenure. The Terrapins lost to the Blue Devils by 18 in College Park in early January and by 10 in Durham later in the year.

The Terrapins crossed that much-needed win over Duke off the list with a 78-70 win in the ACC Tournament Semifinals on March 4, 2006. Laura Harper's 17 points, Marissa Coleman's 16 points and 13 rebounds, and Kristi Toliver's 16 points ended Duke's reign in the series.

"Duke was our measuring stick at that time. Maryland had lost 14 in a row to Duke prior to this game. I took over somewhere in the middle of that streak and my first try we lost by 51 points at their place," head coach Brenda Frese said. "Honestly, at the time, it seemed like a giant mountain there was no guarantee we'd ever be able to summit. Fortunately, we got great people in our program and we quickly closed the gap."

"It's probably safe to say we had chips on our shoulders. When we went to Greensboro for the ACC Tournament, all we heard about was Duke and North Carolina. That really motivated our team. All of us were young and eager to prove people wrong."

Maryland appeared in command after a 15-4 run early in the second half, and Coleman was the spark. She had a 3-pointer and another jumper before dribbling through a double team for a twirling layup. When Jade Perry worked inside for another basket, the Terrapins led 53-38.

Slowly, Duke came back, with a switch from its man-to-man defense to a zone trap. Toliver had trouble finding open teammates to start the offense, and five straight possessions ended in turnovers. The Blue Devils turned almost all of them into points on the other end. Wanisha Smith got a nifty feed from Lindsey Harding on an in-bounds play to make it 16 unanswered points, and suddenly, the Terrapins trailed 54-53 with 9:35 to go.

Crystal Langhorne quickly put them back in front, Harper had five points in less than 60 seconds and Langhorne worked free again in the paint to help Maryland resume control. The Blue Devils only got as close as six points down the stretch.

"Things were really going our way in this game. We had a 15 point lead with under 15 minutes to play. Duke was so good that I knew they would make a run and they did, actually reclaiming the lead," Frese said. "Our young team remained poised, though and responded immediately. We got great leadership from our sophomores Crystal Langhorne and Laura Harper, who really would not let us lose. Marissa Coleman had a double-double. After we won, as we were running off the court, Crystal was already yelling that the monkey was off our backs and the 14 game losing streak was over. That was a really great feeling of accomplishment."

The Associated Press contributed to this story.