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. 

Maryland Dominates Virginia in ACC Quarterfinals, 70-58

After a day of several upsets and closely-fought contests in the Women’s ACC Tournament, the final game of the ACC Women's Basketball Tournament Quarterfinals proved to be a dominant display of basketball. ACC Player of the Year, Alyssa Thomas, had a team high 18 points going 7-13 from the field. Brene Moseley added 13 more off the bench, and in their first game of the ACC Tournament, third-seed Maryland cruised to an easy 70-58 victory over sixth-seed Virginia.

The game was never in question. Maryland jumped out to a 22-9 lead against Virginia early on in the game. This led to a 40-20 lead into halftime. Maryland (26-4, 12-4 ACC) pretty much cruised after the half. Virginia (22-10, 9-7 ACC) never managed to put the game seriously in question. The highest lead was 25; Virginia never managed to cut it to single digits. The score really does not dictate how dominant Maryland really was. Maryland shot 7-10 from the three, good for 70%. They won the rebound battle 43-21, and had 9 blocks. Maryland looked impressive and dominant from start to finish.

Maryland will play seventh-seed Wake Forest, who surprisingly beat second-seeded Miami 81-74 at 1:30PM on Saturday on ESPNU. Maryland is now the highest seeded team still in the field for the tournament. It also helps that Maryland was able to give the starters valuable time resting for the game tomorrow. That is one of the most valuable things in your conference tournament. If there was anything that could worry me about Maryland’s chances of winning, it would be one thing-- turnovers. Maryland committed 24 turnovers today. Even though the game was a blowout, that is still a lot of turnovers for a team with high aspirations like the Terrapins. Even with that minor issue, you have to feel comfortable about the Terrapins making a run at winning another ACC Championship this year.

Alyssa Thomas Wins ACC Player of the Year

The ACC announced yesterday that Alyssa Thomas is the 2012 ACC Player of the Year. Let's take a moment to applaud Alyssa Thomas as Player of the Year in a very stacked ACC that has three Top 10 squads. Thomas leads the team in scoring with 17.0 ppg, alongside 8.2 rpg, and 3.2 apg. She is the second sophomore to ever win the ACC's top honor. She is also the third Terrapin to win the award in the past five years. Thomas hopes to lead Maryland to another ACC Championship starting Friday at 8PM vs sixth-seed Virginia.