Heading into this season, Terrapin women’s basketball coach Brenda Frese knew her team would get tested early and often.
The Terps played an admittedly soft nonconference schedule last year, and the lack of an early season challenge may have ultimately hurt them in conference play and contributed to their eventual early exit in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
To avoid a similar situation this season, Frese scheduled several games against top-level opponents, and if Sunday’s 76-66 win over Oklahoma in just the second game of the season is any indication, the Terps are up to the challenge.
“I’m just really proud of our kids and the effort that they gave,” Frese said. “It was just a tremendous amount of fun for us and we want to continue to build on it.”
The win over the Sooners was really more convincing than the score indicated.
The Terps outplayed the Sooners in nearly every aspect of the game, and did it in front of a national television audience.
The Terps also got their feet wet against a marquee player, holding All-America junior center Courtney Paris to just 11 points, fewer than she scored in any game last season, when she averaged 23.5 points per game.
“We’d been focusing all week on our post defense,” Terps senior center Laura Harper said after the game.
In the second game of last season, the Terps beat lowly George Mason 99-43.
The Terps’ only nonconference opponent last season ranked in the AP Top 25 when they played the Terps was then-No. 19 Michigan State, whom the Terps beat 97-57 on Jan. 6.
The Terps went 16-0 in regular season nonconference games, and were never tested until they lost to then-No. 3 Duke 81-62 on Jan. 13 in their third ACC game.
This year, the Terps could face as many as three ranked teams in the span of a week two separate times before Christmas.
If the Terps beat Delaware tonight in the second round of the Preseason WNIT, they could face No. 24 Notre Dame in the semifinals on Friday.
A win there and the Terps would meet either No. 5 LSU or No. 17 Michigan State in the finals on Sunday, just seven days after the win over the Sooners.
The Terps will play No. 20 Pittsburgh, No. 16 Ohio State and No. 3 Rutgers in a seven-day span from Nov. 27 to Dec. 3.
“This is by far, in my opinion, the toughest schedule of any team out there in the country,” Frese said before the season. “The toughest one we’ve ever had.”
With Duke and North Carolina looming down the road, the Terps hope to be more prepared than they were last year, when they went 0-3 in the regular season against their two biggest rivals.
While Sunday’s win over Oklahoma was a good start, the Terps know they have a long way to go.
“We’re going to continue to grow and continue to get better,” Frese said. “There are so many things for us to build on from the second game of the season.”
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