The first 10 minutes of last night’s Terrapins game against Siena were like a classic heavyweight battle. The teams exchanged baskets as the Saints’ bench cheered for each score as if it were in the final moments of a championship game.

It was not until Siena guard Katelyn Dooley hit a 3-pointer to put the Saints up 26-25 that the Terps started to demonstrate why they are the No. 1- ranked team in women’s basketball.

“The first half, our intensity level wasn’t really there,” sophomore guard Marissa Coleman said. “You could see in their faces and their energy, when they would hit the big shot, just how excited they were to be playing so well in the first half.”

Following the Saints’ basket, the Terps (10-0) ran off a 14-0 run and handled Siena (1-7) the rest of the way with ease, winning 93-54.

Just as she did in the important battles last season, sophomore guard Kristi Toliver got the Terps’ offense going when it needed a lift. Toliver started the run with three consecutive baskets which helped keep the Terps ahead for the rest of the night.

“She really does a great job understanding the flow of the game and understanding when a big shot needs to be made,” coach Brenda Frese said of Toliver. “She has a lot of confidence in her teammates who were giving her the ball in the right positions allowing her to get some free looks.”

In the second half, the Terps had just one turnover – compared to the 10 that plagued them before the break. With a more controlled offense, the Terps outscored the Saints 48-20 in the second half.

“We’re really trying to stay focused in the huddles and just reinforce the fact that we don’t want to turn the ball over,” senior guard Shay Doron said. “That just snowballs everything else. We’re just trying to stay focused with the turnovers and move our feet on defense.”

Coleman followed her historic triple-double with a more than modest double-double, as she tallied a team-high 19 points and 12 assists and impressed yet another opposing coach.

“She’s just a very difficult person to defend,” Siena coach Gina Castelli said. “She’s so versatile and she can post up, and in the second half she was really taking it to the hoop, getting to the line. That hurt us quite a bit. Their whole team is incredible; just to pick out one is tough, but she stepped it up a lot in the second half.”

The Terps’ balanced scoring attack once again featured five different players in double digits and, as a team, it shot 66.7 percent from the field.

Still, they could have been more dominant in their performance last night.

When a team wins by 39 points it seems like nitpicking to say it could have been better, but the Terps did not seem very motivated to play Siena, in what was their final home game until Dec. 29.

“I didn’t like our intensity and how we valued possessions,” Frese said. “I thought we were too loose with the ball. [We had] way too many turnovers and breakdowns on the defensive end. I’m proud of how we responded in the second half, being much more focused and ready to play. When we can value possessions like that, you see why the game was broke open.”

Contact reporter Mark Selig at mseligdbk@gmail.com.