ATHENS, GA. -- The Maryland women's basketball team played with such headiness tonight that the Ohio State coach compared the Terrapins to Iowa, the nation's second-ranked team.
Except, Ohio State beat Iowa, and it couldn't beat Maryland, not here in the Mideast regional semifinals at Georgia Coliseum. Behind Vicky Bullett's season-high 33 points, ninth-ranked Maryland won, 81-66, and is now one game away from next weekend's Final Four in Tacoma, Wash.
Saturday, the Terrapins meet third-ranked Auburn, 68-65 winners over Georgia in tonight's other semifinal. Maryland wasn't favored against sixth-ranked Ohio State (25-5), and it certainly won't be favored against 29-2 Auburn.
Tonight, the Terrapins overcame an 11-point first-half deficit by inducing slow Ohio State into an up-tempo game.
Syracuse tried similar strategy in Ohio State's previous game, but Syracuse grew tired and lost by 41.
"We don't run all those line drills in practice for nothing," said senior guard Lisa Brown, who scored 17 points.
When Maryland wasn't running, it was passing the ball inside to Bullett, a 6-foot-3 junior who always tries dunking in practice when Coach Chris Weller isn't looking. No dunks tonight, but plenty of layups against Ohio State's star junior forward Nakita Lowry, who became so concerned with Bullett that she said she forgot to shoot.
Bullett made 10 of 13 shots in the first half for 20 points, and Maryland led by six at halftime. Bullett played the entire game, but did not seem to tire.
"You can never let them see you sweat, like in that {antiperspirant} commercial," said Bullett, who also grabbed 11 rebounds.
Weller pointed out several keys to victory tonight, though not in any particular order. One was the play of Bullett, considering 6-3 center Christy Winters picked up two fouls early and was benched. Another key was reserve guard Carla Holmes, who scored 10 points and had five assists, despite six turnovers.
In practice Wednesday, Holmes appeared lazy, and Weller admonished her in front of the team. "Keep this up, and I'm sending you home!" Weller said.
"I meant it," Weller said tonight. In fact, when Maryland went to the Final Four once in the late 1970s, Weller lived up to a similar threat and kept a key player out of a big game for loafing. Holmes knew this.
Holmes told Weller that she plays better when she practices poorly. "I told her this wasn't a dance recital, that this was a basketball game," Weller said. "I told her you practice how you play."
Message accomplished.
Holmes came off the bench with Maryland trailing by 20-11, and contributed six points and four assists immediately. A 22-3 scoring spree had Maryland (26-5) ahead for good.
A third key to victory was Maryland's rebounding. Weller predicted the Terrapins wouldn't win if they didn't rebound because they wouldn't be able to run. So, Maryland outrebounded bulkier Ohio State, 37-34. How? A better display of athletics.
At one point, Holmes threw a full-court pass toward Bullett, who was double-teamed, but outleaped all-America Tracey Hall for the ball and layup.
Finally, perhaps the largest key of all was a gimmick defense that Weller saved for last. On offense, the strategy was to attack Lowry with Bullett. But on defense, the plan was to play a triangle-and-two against outside shooter Lisa Cline and inside post player Hall. Weller didn't use that defense in the first half, for she feared Ohio State Coach Nancy Darsch would have time to adjust. Instead, Weller waited for the final 20 minutes to spring it, and the Buckeye players were too panicky by that time to adjust cleanly.
"We were worried a lot about Hall and Cline because they feed Lowry," Weller said, explaining her defense.
Lowery, averaging 24 points, scored only 15 on seven-of-16 shooting, and Hall, two-time Big 10 player of the year, had only nine points on three-of-eight shooting. Cline added 12, but didn't shoot nearly enough because of Edna Campbell's tough defense.
