COLLEGE PARK, Md. – What a great week to be a Terp! The Maryland men's basketball team topped Georgetown in the #RivalryRenewed game and the Terrapin women's basketball team did something it has never done before. We will get to the men's hoops game, but we're starting with women's basketball. And that's just the tip of the iceberg for this edition of the umterps Notebook.
Starting Strong
The Maryland women's basketball team got its season off to a strong start with a 102-53 shellacking (Shell pun intended) of UMass Lowell this past Saturday and then followed that up with a 105-50 win over High Point on Wednesday.
This marks the first time in the 45-year history of the Maryland women's basketball program that the Terps have opened a season with back-to-back 100-point performances.
It's also the first time the Terrapins have posted 100 points or better in consecutive games since the 2005-06 season (you know, the National Championship season). Maryland defeated Appalachian State by a 118-59 margin on Dec. 1 and then topped Mount St. Mary's, 102-53, on Dec. 4.
The two 100-point performances are the 16th and 17th times Maryland has eclipsed the century mark under head coach Brenda Frese.
While the 55-point margin of victory over High Point is impressive, it's only tied for ninth among the 17 100-point games since Frese took the reins prior to the 2002-03 season. The largest margin of victory in a 100-point game during Frese's tenure was a 75-point rout of Delaware State (108-33) on Dec. 8, 2011. The 49-point win over UMass Lowell is tied for 12th.
Junior Shatori Walker-Kimbrough has been sensational in the two wins. She scored 22 points and grabbed seven rebounds vs. UMass Lowell and then was even better vs. High Point, scoring 26 points to go along with 10 rebounds. Walker's two-game total of 48 points is even more impressive when you consider she only played 52 minutes. That means she's scoring .923 points per minute played.
The Terps have a quick turnaround, returning to action Friday at 11 a.m. vs. Detroit in the annual Field Trip Day. Last year, the Terrapins welcomed nearly 2,000 local elementary school students from 15 area schools to the first-ever Field Trip Day that kicked off the 2014-15 season.
The Maryland-Detroit matchup will be streamed live on the BTN2Go app, which is the official app of the Big Ten Network or through BTN2Go.com. Fans can watch with their BTN2Go subscriptions.
Four Of A Kind
Congratulations to Sasho Cirovski and his Maryland men's soccer team on winning the 2015 Big Ten tournament with a 2-0 shutout over host and No. 1-seed Ohio State on Sunday.
Maryland's memorable weekend in Columbus started on Friday with a 1-1 vs. long-time rival Indiana in the semifinals.
A 3:07 span from the 9:12 mark to 12:19 saw all of the scoring, but the drama was just beginning. Maryland's Tsubasa Endoh made the Hoosiers pay for a turnover deep in their own end to give the Terps a 1-0 lead. But that was short-lived as a rebound off of a corner kick gave Indiana's Phil Fives a good look at the left post and just like that the game was tied at 1-1.
Both teams had chances in the second half and in overtime, but neither could get the go-ahead goal. That meant the match would be decided by penalty kicks and that's where Maryland goalkeeper Cody Niedermeier made the difference. The junior from Arnold, Md., stopped the final four PK attempts by the Hoosiers and the Terps advanced, 3-2.
The championship game wasn't nearly as dramatic as Maryland took a 1-0 lead in the 10th minute on a goal from Eryk Williamson and Endoh added the insurance goal in the 88th minute to give the Terps their second straight Big Ten tournament title.
The conference tournament championship is the fourth straight for the Terps and their sixth in the past eight seasons.
The tournament championship also did another thing for the Terps – it earned them a top-16 seed and a bye in the first round of the NCAA tournament.
Maryland was awarded the No. 10 seed and will open the 2015 NCAA tournament on Sunday, November 22 vs. the winner of the Virginia-Rider match at Ludwig Field at 5 p.m.
As a primer for the tournament, check out the special umterps.com presentation of Breaking Through – The Story of the 2005 Maryland Men's Soccer Team. You'll be glad you did.
Beltway Battle Lives Up To Hype
The long-anticipated Maryland-Georgetown men's basketball game more than lived up to the hype this past Tuesday at XFINITY Center.
This one had it all – big dunks, key 3-pointers, and a down-to-the-wire ending (that favored the Terps, which makes it all the better).
It also featured an insanely hot XFINITY Center crowd. You can read all about how XFINITY Center came alive for this November game by clicking here.
One of the reasons the crowd got going from the get go was a tremendous video, narrated by Scott Van Pelt and put together by the Maryland athletics video operations team, that debuted prior to the game. Check it out below.
Coach Turgeon's Terps are back in action tomorrow night at XFINITY Center, hosting Rider at 7 p.m. Fans can catch that game on the Big Ten Network.
If you didn't get season tickets for the Terps this year (and that's the only way to make sure you won't miss any of the action) there are a couple of ways to get tickets.
First, sign up for Terps Fast Pass. Tickets for Maryland events often become available from ticket returns close to game time and this service enables the most efficient way to communicate these opportunities to fans. The best seat locations will be available to fans who respond first to ReplyBuy notifications. A mobile e-ticket will be sent to your device within seconds of purchasing tickets.
Second, umterps.com has ticket auctions for every Maryland men's basketball home game. Two lower level seats and four upper level seats are up for bid for every game and each game day package includes a parking pass for a lot in close proximity to XFINITY Center. Click here to check out the game day packages and all of the great items up for bid at the umterps.com Official Auctions.
Quick Hitters
• The final home game of the 2015 Maryland football season takes place this Saturday at noon at Capital One Field at Byrd Stadium. The Terrapins will honor their 13 seniors prior to taking on the Indiana Hoosiers.
Among the 13 seniors is kicker Brad Craddock, who won the 2014 Lou Groza Award as the nation's top kicker. You can check out more on Craddock's journey that brought him from Adelaide, Australia to College Park here.
The Terrapin defense turned in a standout effort at No. 14 Michigan State last Saturday and knocked out Spartan starting QB Connor Cook, but Maryland came up short in East Lansing, Mich., 24-7.
Junior defensive end Yannick Ngakoue had 1.5 sacks at Michigan State and needs just one more to surpass Mark Duda (1982) and Bruce Palmer (1978) for the single-season sack record at Maryland. He now has 20.5 sacks for his career and has his sights set of Andre Monroe's career record of 25 sacks.
• Signing Day was last Wednesday and it's always exciting to see the fresh new faces that will be donning the Red and Black in the coming years. Highlighting the day was the women's basketball recruiting class, which was rated the No. 1 recruiting class in the nation by ESPN, Blue Star Basketball and Collegiate Girls Basketball Report.
Coach Turgeon's men's basketball program also had a good signing day, inking a pair of top 50 players in guards Anthony Cowan and Kevin Huerter.
Steve Aird's Maryland volleyball program inked arguably the best incoming freshman class in program history, highlighted by Gia Milana, the No. 15 overall recruit in the country, according to prepvolleyball.com.
Head coach Brett Nelligan's Maryland gymnastics team signed a pair of recruits in Canadian National Team member Kirsten Peterman and Alecia Farina, who is the only gymnast in Ohio high school history to score a perfect 10.0 on vault.
Tweet of the Week
Wrapping Up
That's it for this edition of the umterps Notebook. Don't forget to follow Maryland athletics on all of the social media platforms: Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
