Maryland women's basketball defeats Loyola, 65-43

The Maryland Terrapins and Loyola Greyhounds met Monday night in a match up of local women's basketball interest. Early on, the Terps continued the sluggish play they exhibited Saturday at George Washington but the deeper, taller, more athletic and talented Terrapins wore down the Greyhounds to come away with the 65-43

First half - Slow and sloppy

At one point in Monday's contest, the Greyhounds led the Terps. Of course, that lead came on the first point of the game. Maryland respond with an 8-0 run and never trailed again. However, even as they built a 38-26 halftime lead, the Terps presented head coach Brenda Frese and her staff enough basketball shortcomings requiring improvement to last through more than one upcoming practice.

After taking a 10 point lead at 13-1 some less than stellar work against Loyola's zone coupled with some poor decisions to leave shooters with open opportunities allowed the Greyhounds to go on an 18-8 run that closed the gap to 23-21 and prompted a timeout from Coach Frese.

At that point, Maryland had six turnovers to five for Loyola. The Greyhounds were shooting 54 percent and had made four of their six three point attempts. In spite of their considerable height advantage, the Terps struggled to get the ball inside Loyola's zone defense where their post players could effectively use their size advantage. Meanwhile, Maryland's struggles from behind the arc continued as the Terps shot only 3-10 for the half.

After the timeout, Maryland tightened their defense holding Loyola to just two baskets and five points over the final 8:12 of the half. One place the Terrapins did exert their size advantage was on the boards. After losing the rebounding battle to GW Saturday, Maryland asserted themselves on the glass finishing the half with a 20-11 advantage that contributed significantly to their 38-26 lead.

Second half - Too deep

Although they didn't start the half well, turning the ball over twice on their first three possessions, the Terps depth and athleticism began to wear down the Greyhounds and Maryland methodically began to pull away. Still, the Terps were far from sharp.

Maryland continued to play well defensively holding Loyola to 1-7 from beyond the arc and 22.6 percent overall. However, they lost some of their intensity on the glass as the much shorter Greyhounds stayed even with the Terps as each squad pulled down 22 rebounds though Coach Frese attributed that to frequently playing four guards and wanting to give some players a bit of additional experience. Both teams also turned the ball over 11 times in the period marking the second straight game with at least 20 Maryland turnovers.

Another spot where the Terps continued to struggle from long distance making only two of seven in the half and finishing the game 5-17 from three. Three Terps scored in double figures led by 13 from Laurin Mincy. Brianna pulled down seven rebounds to lead all players and freshman A'Lexus Harrison had a team leading four of Maryland's 19 assists as the Terps closed out the 65-43 win and moved to 5-0 on the season.