The Terrapin women’s basketball team reached new highs in attendance coming off of a national championship season in 2005-2006. The team attracted 241,280 fans for all games in the 2006-07 season, and averaged 9,533 fans per home game, good for a 4,270 per game increase from 2005-06. Over 150,000 fans watched the Terps play at Comcast.

The Terps averaged 4,813 fans per home game in 2005-06, and had an overall road and home attendance of 211,612 that season, both previous highs for the team.

The overall attendance mark was good for fourth in the nation, while the per game attendance ranked sixth. Among the highlights of the season were sellouts against top ACC rivals Duke and North Carolina.

The Comcast Center saw 17,950 fans for the Jan. 28 home date against North Carolina, the largest single-game mark for a women’s basketball game in ACC history. The Terps tied that mark against Duke later in the season, when the Blue Devils came to College Park on Feb. 18.

The Terps’ attendance mark for the North Carolina game at the Comcast Center represented more fans than Georgia Tech and Miami drew all season, and the combined number of fans for both sellouts was higher than the attendance for Boston College, Clemson and Florida State all season.

n Coleman and U.S. team get gold at Pan Am Games

Terrapin women’s basketball forward Marissa Coleman helped lead the U.S. Pan American Games women’s team to the gold medal, as the squad beat Brazil 79-66 on Tuesday.The U.S. played in a tight championship match with the host team, as the American team led 34-33 at the half before pulling ahead late in the fourth quarter.

Coleman played in all five games for the U.S. team while averaging 9.4 points and 4.2 rebounds per game. She shot a team-high 69 percent from the field as well as 46 percent from beyond the arc.

Coleman’s best game came against the defending champion Cubans, when Coleman scored 19 points to lead the team to a 78-63 win in the final round-robin game.

Entering her junior year with the Terps, Coleman has won three other gold medals while competing for the national team in various age groups and tournaments. Her previous gold medals came in the 2004 Junior World Chamionship, the 2005 International Sports Invitational and at the 2005 FIBA U-19 World Championship.

Coleman became the third Terp women’s baskteball player to win a gold medal in national team play. Seniors Crystal Langhorne and Laura Harper both won gold medals at the FIBA U-21 World Championship in Russia.

n Haynos named to Mackey Award watch list

Terrapin football tight end Joey Haynos, a senior this season, was named to the preseason John Mackey Award watch list.

The Mackey award is given at the end of each season to the best tight end in college football. The award was created in 2000 and past winners include several NFL stars, including 2001 winner Dallas Clark of the Indianapolis Colts, 2002 winner Daniel Graham of the Denver Broncos and 2003 winner Kellen Winslow Jr. of the Cleveland Browns.

Haynos was honorable mention All-ACC last season and was named to the preseason All-ACC second team by Athlon and Lindy’s.

n Former Terps lead field hockey to Pan Am silver medal

Lauren Powley and Keli Smith, former Terrapin field hockey stars, led the U.S. Pan American Games field hockey team to the championship game before falling to Argentina, the No. 2-ranked team in the world.

The U.S. team was trying to get an automatic berth in the 2008 Olympics, but will now need to play in one of the three Olympic Qualifying Tournaments next year if it hopes to play in Beijing next summer.

Powley and Smith both started every game for the U.S. team, and Smith scored two goals while helping the U.S. to go undefeated in three games in Pool B. The U.S. scored 17 goals and allowed only one in group play, in part due to Powley’s defensive prowess.

-Compiled from staff reports.