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March 23, 2008
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COLLEGE PARK, Md. (AP) -- Crystal Langhorne had 25 points and 12 rebounds, Marissa Coleman scored 17 and Laura Harper had 14 as Maryland pulled away to an 80-66 victory over Coppin State on Sunday in the first round of the Spokane Regional.
Coppin State made more field goals (27-24) than the Terrapins and had fewer turnovers (16-15). Maryland -- which will face No. 8 seed Nebraska at 9:30 p.m. on Tuesday in the second round -- held a 28-10 advantage at the foul line and a 42-26 rebounding edge.
"We didn't want this to be our last game. That's all we kept saying," Maryland's Marissa Coleman said. "We knew if we let them be close toward the end, we would be in for a battle."
Rashida Suber scored 25 points and Shalamar Oakley had 20 for Coppin State, the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference champions. The Eagles are now 0-12 against in-state rival Maryland, but they didn't hang their heads after this one.
"They did a tremendous job in terms of their scouting. I thought they were very physical and very aggressive, and did a tremendous job for 40 minutes," Terps coach Brenda Frese said. "They really made us work."
Everything seemed to be going according to form in the opening minutes, when Coleman and Langhorne dominated the paint to stake the Terps (31-3) to a 15-6 lead. The Eagles had already burned a timeout in an effort to blunt the onslaught, even thought it appeared to many in the crowd to be a futile gesture.
Then everything went askew. It began with an innocent layup by Suber. Then Oakley made two free throws, and a jumper. And by the time those two got finished playing this little round of 2-on-5, they had combined for 14 straight points to put Coppin State ahead 20-15.
The Eagles weren't done. After Maryland pulled even, Oakley answered with a three-point play. Then the Terrapins went ahead 34-27, and Coppin responded by holding Maryland without a field goal for the final three minutes of the half.
"In the first half they were definitely the aggressor," guard Kristi Toliver said. "Credit to them for putting us out of our comfort zone."
Down 40-35 at the break, Coppin came out strong in the second half. A runner in the lane by Oakley got the Eagles to 45-41, and at that point the only fans making noise were the ones who traveled 30 miles from Baltimore to cheer for Coppin.
"We just fell a little short," Coppin coach Derek Brown said.
Then Harper made two free throws, Kristi Toliver hit a 3-pointer, Langhorne made a layup and Ashleigh Newman capped a 10-0 run with jumper from beyond the arc for a 55-41 lead.
The Eagles closed to 57-48, but their upset bid was finally quashed with an 11-1 spurt that put the Terps up by 18.
"We know we're going to get everybody's best game no matter who we're playing. It's the NCAA tournament," Coleman said. "We have been in his situation before. We knew we had another 20 minutes to make up for our mistakes in the first half."
