BOSTON – The message was big and clear, posted everywhere in the Terrapin women’s basketball team’s locker room: “REBOUND.”

There were colorful ones, there were plain ones and there were just simple written words on the dry-erase board.

Coach Brenda Frese got her message across: rebound and you’ll win. And the Terps did.

“It started back at our locker room in Maryland,” Frese said. “We wanted to follow that here out to Boston. Our pre-game meals, our film room, our locker room, we wanted them to be able to understand how important of a key that was going to be to this game.”

The Terps out-rebounded North Carolina 41-31 and played the physical type of defense that enabled them to pull out a double-digit victory.

After their ACC tournament loss to the Tar Heels, the Terps knew they had to adjust on the glass.

“We definitely knocked them out convincingly,” Toliver said. “Just by stepping up defensively and getting rebounds. That’s how we won the game.”

At first, though, North Carolina dominated the glass, and it looked like it could be a long night ahead for the Terps. At the 15:33 mark of the first half, the Tar Heels held an 8-2 rebounding advantage and had seven of those on the offensive end.

“This whole time preparing, it’s been stressing rebounding, and it was a little disappointing to hear such statistics from the coaches,” forward Laura Harper said. “I think we just kind of buckled down and said, ‘we have to rebound in order to win this game.’ So that’s what we did.”

The Terps’ defense was even better than their rebounding.

All week long, Frese had talked about how it was going to be a high-scoring, fast-paced, offensive-minded game. But apparently, she pulled a fast one. The Terps clearly played better on the defensive end and didn’t need to trade baskets or keep up with North Carolina to win.

“You never know which tempo is going to win out,” Frese said. “I knew North Carolina had the speed to make it an up-tempo game. But I was hoping we were going to be able to control this game in the 70s. Obviously that worked to our advantage.”

The Tar Heels came into the game ranked No. 3 in the country, averaging 83.2 points per game. They left the NCAA tournament with a 70-point effort and 36.8 shooting percentage.

Ivory Latta shot just 5 for 17 and, other than Erlana Larkins, none of the Tar Heels had any kind of impact.

“Give Maryland credit; they played tougher than us,” North Carolina forward Jessica Sell said. “They just may win it all. We didn’t come out and capitalize on the things that we needed to tonight.”

The Terps did. And that’s why they’re moving on to tomorrow night’s national championship game against Duke.

Contact reporter Andrew Zuckerman at zuckermandbk@gmail.com.