Terps Blank Lancers in First Meeting Ever at Willett Hall

With 12:02 remaining in the first half, a glimmer of hope shined through that just maybe the Lancers would take the Maryland Terrapins to the brink of an upset. Sophomore Brittany Billups stepped to the free throw line, nailed both attempts, and what was once a 22-7 Lancer deficit was now an 8-2 Lancer run.

At that point, the Lancers found themselves only down by nine with a score of 24-15 to the visiting Maryland Terrapins from the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC). "When we started out we weren't guarding shooters, and then we started playing defense a lot better, and we were attacking them on offense," said senior point guard Becky Fernandes, "Brittany [Billups] was playing well and we were just capitalizing on our opportunities."

But that was as close as they would get. "Going into the game," said Head Coach Kristin Caruso, "we were looking to take away their post to where obviously their two leading scorers are, and unfortunately you have to give up something so we were kind of hoping that they didn't shoot the ball from the perimeter as well as they did, and they did."

A 17-6 Maryland run capped by a Dara Taylor 3-pointer would widen the deficit to 41-23, and a 16-0 run to start the second half for the Terps would all but doom the home Lancers.

Longwood fell to the Terps 85-40 in front of a supportive home crowd of 831.
The Terps managed to get on the scoreboard early, as guard Kim Rodgers scored the first nine points of the contest. She managed to start five of five from beyond the arch to acquire all 15 of her points.

"You know its funny," recalled Caruso, "because I was talking to Brenda Frese [Maryland head coach] after the game, and apparently she had a bad game the game before.

"So its just one of those things where she was looking to redeem herself and it happened to be against us." Out of nine three-point attempts, the Terrapins only missed two heading into the locker room.

Facing a 24-44 half-time deficit, the Lancers would need stops and buckets to get back into things, but they got neither to start the second half. "I think we just came out a little sluggish," said Billups, "and you can't come out sluggish against a team of that caliber.

"We definitely didn't come out with the same intensity as we came out with in the first half, and it showed a lot, and we couldn't get anything going." Against Maryland, Billups continued her strong play from the team's victory over Winthrop almost a week ago.

Billups, a sophomore forward, finished the game with 17 points on seven of 16 shooting, while also snatching five rebounds in 33 minutes of action. This performance comes after her career double-double of 24 points and 13 rebounds the previous game.

"She's been playing awesome," said Fernandes, "We knew she always had it in her. She's just finishing and playing very confident." At this point in the season, Billups and freshman Chelsea Coward are leading the team in scoring, both averaging 10.4 points per game.

"I know that my team needs me to play hard," said Billups, "We're a very young team, and I'm one of the very few people that came back from last year, so I knew that I definitely had to step it up as a sophomore, play with some intensity, and play hard. "I've only got two more years, so I want to make every game count from now on."

However, neither Coward nor the rest of her teammates could get much of anything going against the Terps' ACC defense.

The Lancers shot 26 percent from the floor for the game and only connected on one of 13 attempts from three-point land. Coward and Fernandes finished with four combined points.

Meanwhile, if Maryland put up a shot, it usually found the bottom of the net. The Terps finished the game shooting 54 percent from the floor and 55 percent from three. Maryland was also able to use its superior size, out-rebounding the Lancers 51-30.

Despite the final tally, Caruso and her Lancer squad appreciate the opportunity to compete against an ACC opponent in the friendly confines of Willett Hall, as well as seeing the impact it had on Longwood University.

"I think it was good for our kids to be able to play a home game like that," commented Caruso.

"It was a great opportunity, and we all enjoyed it," said Fernandes "Of course, we wish the outcome was different, but we had a lot of fun, and you just have to look at those kind of games as a learning experience.