Head coach Brenda Frese slaps hands with forward Alyssa Thomas after Thomas and the Terps easily tackled Wake Forest with a 76-46 victory over Demon Deacons on Jan 9, 2013 at Comcast Center
Brenda Frese usually doesn’t criticize the way the Terrapins women’s basketball team prepares for upcoming games. But during practice yesterday afternoon, the Terps coach temporarily stopped a five-on-five drill and called her team out on its frequent defensive lapses.
Sudden dips in performance, particularly on defense, have hurt the Terps during a stretch in which they have lost three of their past four games. In those defeats, the team has allowed an average of more than 81 points per game.
“We’ve had teams go red-hot against our defense,” Frese said.
When the Terps enter the second half of their ACC schedule against Pittsburgh tonight at Comcast Center, they’ll aim to prevent those mistakes and finish their conference slate strong.
The Terps’ stingy perimeter defense has been one of their strongest areas this season, as the they have kept opponents shooting 27.2 percent from three-point range, the lowest mark in the ACC. With their recent defensive struggles, however, they have given up more open looks from beyond the arc. In two of the Terps’ most recent defeats, opponents shot more than 40 percent from beyond the arc.
“We kind of let some plays go, and I think that’s what we’re focusing on now,” guard Brene Moseley said. “Not to miss out and don’t give up any plays. Make sure that we play 40 minutes of basketball and not just 30 minutes.”
ACC preseason polls projected the Terps would finish third, but after a 5-3 start in league play, they sit fourth in the conference standings. Despite starting the ACC slate with four victories, including an impressive road win against then-No. 10 North Carolina in the conference opener, recent performances have put the Terps behind the league leaders’ pace.
“As our record shows, we didn’t really play as well as we would’ve hoped in the beginning of ACC play,” guard Lexie Brown said. “But I think that we’ve grown a lot as a team, sticking together, especially through the tough losses that we had.”
The Terps eventually made progress during their 89-64 win at Syracuse on Sunday in a game Frese called their most complete performance of the season. It was the first time in five games that they allowed less than 70 points, and they led for the majority of the game.
Brown was a major factor in the team’s resurgence this weekend, scoring a career-high 31 points and adding seven assists. The sharpshooter was 7-of-8 from beyond the arc, helping the Terps recover from their recent shooting woes. Pittsburgh allows opponents to shoot 33.2 percent from three-point range, so Brown’s shooting can exploit the Panthers’ weakness.
“We’re asking her to do more,” Frese said. “She’s stepping up, and she shoots the ball so well. We need more threats from the perimeter, so she’s really playing with a lot of confidence.”
But first the Terps intend to play with more consistency. Frese emphasized that focus when she noticed an uncharacteristic drop in practice quality.
“I do think that to be more successful in the second half that we got to manage to put together a great 40 minutes, which we finally did against Syracuse,” Brown said. “The losses we took, we had spurts of good moments and then spurts of just horrific basketball, so I think the main thing we need to do is put a full game together.”
