BLACKSBURG, Va. — Guard Lori Bjork is comfortable hoisting a shot from 21 feet out. Center Lynetta Kizer would rather lay it in from a lot closer. Either way, when the Terrapin women’s basketball team’s inside-outside presence got their looks Thursday, they often didn’t miss.
Bjork and Kizer combined for 40 points on 16-for-24 shooting to snap a three-game losing streak and notch the Terps’ first ACC win in two weeks in a crucial game at Cassell Coliseum, smothering Virginia Tech, 60-44.
“This is the halfway point for conference play and for us — we’ve been knocking on the door but needed to put a complete game together,” coach Brenda Frese said. “I thought tonight was a great game for 40 minutes.”
Bjork did her most damage in the first 20. The senior hit three three-pointers in a span of 2:44 late in the first half to turn a 17-17 deadlock into a 29-18 Terp lead the team never relinquished. By halftime, Bjork had 14 points on 5-of-7 shooting, punishing a flimsy Hokies defense and keeping the Terps ahead despite a combined 7-of-18 first-half shooting performance from her teammates.
“To watch Lori, she’s playing like you expect a senior to play,” Frese said. “If you just give Lori a little bit of daylight, she’s going to knock it down. She puts in the work and has the confidence and was a huge spark for us, obviously, to break open the game there in the first half.”
After being outrebounded for much of the first half by an undersized Virginia Tech frontline, Kizer and the Terps (15-6, 3-4 ACC) started to assert their dominance on the glass.
Soon after the Hokies (12-8, 2-4 ACC) opened the second half with a 4-0 run to cut the lead to 29-26, Kizer (18 points) set the tone for the rest of the game. About three minutes in, she snagged an offensive rebound in the paint before hitting a hook shot, despite a Hokie foul. On the ensuing free throw, Kizer again found her own miss and then found the basket to push the Terp lead to seven.
“She was a monster,” Frese said. “She was aggressive — just how we need her — to be able to give us an inside-outside presence. She owned the paint inside.”
The Terps quickly outpaced their hosts on the scoreboard, and up and down the court.
After Kizer banked in another shot two possessions later, guard Anjale Barrett pushed the ball forward against an exhausted Virginia Tech defense before slinging it to a wide-open Bjork, who had ample time to nail a three-pointer for a 40-26 lead.
Even when the Kizer-Bjork tandem did miss Thursday, there was help elsewhere — from guard Jackie Nared, cleaning up the glass, or 5-foot-7 guard Dara Taylor, skying for the ball despite her diminutive stature.
“She’s the smallest girl on the court!” cried one incredulous Hokies fan.
“We had a lot of players that stepped up, did the little things, got the hustle plays tonight,” Frese said.
Saddled by early foul trouble in recent games, Kizer didn’t pick up her second foul until the Terps were leading by double-digits and Cassell Coliseum was almost completely vacant.
When she laid the ball in as time expired with no defensive resistance for her 18th point, it seemed like it had come just as easy as her other 16.
“They were feeding the ball and I just wanted to put them on my back,” Kizer said. “I just want to get our team back on the right path, and it’s just a great road win.”
shaffer@umdbk.com
