Maryland Advances to ACC Women's Championship with Victory over Wake Forest

After a dominant performance in the Quarterfinals, there is always a small concern that a team will have a bit of a letdown in the next game. Fortunately, Maryland held strong. Alyssa Thomas led the team again with a double-double -- 18 points and 12 rebounds. Maryland’s Laurin Mincy, Tianna Hawkins, and Lynetta Kizer each also scored in double figures as No. 5 Maryland (27-4) defeated Wake Forest (19-13) in the ACC Basketball Tournament Semi-finals by a score of 73-58.

Despite the game being highly-contested in the first half, Wake Forest only led in the game for around a minute. This trend continued in the second half. Wake Forest would get close to taking the lead, but not close enough. In the second half, the Terrapins pushed the lead to double digits. The lead stayed around there for most of the game. Wake Forest would cut the lead down to single digits only to have the lead return back to double-digits again with their largest lead at one point being sixteen. The game picked up with five minutes remaining when Wake Forest’s Lakevia Boykin scored five points in a span of fifteen seconds after a three pointer and a steal from Alyssa Thomas and layup that cut the lead down to 61-54. The Terps responded strongly, not allowing the lead to get any lower for the rest of the game. Alyssa Thomas once again led the team strongly as both a scorer in the first half and a facilitator in the second. She played an all around great game, leading the team in points (18), rebounds (12), and assists (4). The Terps shot over 50%. They outrebounded the Demon Deacons 39-32.

Once again turnovers plagued Maryland all game. Maryland had 21 turnovers compared to 9 for Wake Forest. Alyssa Thomas had 6 TOs by herself. This is slightly down from Maryland’s Quarterfinals performance versus Virginia where they had 24. Turnovers are really what kept Wake Forest in the game. Wake Forest shot relatively poorly (22-74 for 29.7%) compared to Maryland (28-53 for 52.8%). However, Maryland’s turnovers led to numerous fast-break points. Maryland must clean this up for the championship game if they want to bring home ACC Championship gold.

Maryland looks to complete a three game sweep of No. 18 Georgia Tech on Sunday. The Yellow Jackets won their semi-final game in dominant fashion over NC State 87-61. Tip-off is at 2:00PM on ESPN2. Maryland will look to break the tie with North Carolina for most ACC Tournament Championships as they go for their tenth championship.