With the Terrapins women’s basketball team leading 105-30 late in Sunday’s game against Maryland Eastern Shore, guard Kiara Leslie set up her team for a historic result.
Her free throw with 1:44 left in the fourth quarter gave the Terps a 76-point lead. The game ended at 106-30 — the Hawks missed their final three shots — securing the No. 6 Terps’ largest margin of victory in program history. Their previous high was a 75-point win over Delaware State on Dec. 8, 2011.
“Our team came out and played great tonight,” Leslie said. “We shared the ball really well. I think we came out in an attack mentality, and we just executed well.”
Guards Shatori Walker-Kimbrough and Brene Moseley, who entered the game first and third on the team in scoring, respectively, led the Terps (11-0) with 23 points apiece.
But coach Brenda Frese’s team also received a big afternoon from Leslie, who scored a career-high 22 points against the Hawks (3-9). After starting the first seven contests, the sophomore has come off the bench in the past three contests.
As a team, the Terps eclipsed the 100-point mark for the third time this season and held UMES to eight points or less in three of four quarters.
“Kiara, obviously, was exceptional for us all,” Frese said. “And our team was clicking on all cylinders.”
Sunday’s contest marked guard Kristen Confroy’s first start of the year, as the sophomore replaced forward Kiah Gillespie in the starting lineup. Though she’s entered the contest averaging just 6.6 points per contest, Confroy’s scored 37 points in her past four games, which her eight-point performance Sunday.
Frese said the decision to insert Confroy into the lineup was based on trying to find “the right combination.” Walker-Kimbrough, center Brionna Jones and guard Chloe Pavlech have each started all 11 games, but seven different players have earned the starting nod at least once thus far.
The altered lineup immediately jumped on its opponent, scoring the first 11 points and taking a 20-5 lead after one quarter. The Terps added 33 points in the second frame while holding the Hawks the just eight points to take a dominating lead into the break.
“We played hard,” Frese said. “Coming off of finals, you never know what you’re going to get, but played a hard 40 minutes, competed every single possession and got better today.”
The Terps, which already entered Sunday with the nation’s largest margin of victory at 37.8 points per game, continued their demolition to stay undefeated.
Starting in a little over a week, though, the competition stiffens. It starts Dec. 28 when the Terps play No. 1 Connecticut at Madison Square Garden in New York. And after traveling to Illinois to face the Fighting Illini three days later, Frese’s squad battles No. 10 Ohio State in its conference home opener.
Nevertheless, the Terps believe they’re ready for these upcoming tests.
“We’re definitely excited to go into the Big Ten — great teams ahead of us,” Walker-Kimbrough said. “We’re always working to get better, and these past games have been challenging us to see what we need to work on for these upcoming games.”