COLLEGE PARK, Md.- No. 1 Maryland managed 70 shots from the floor and held the No. 25 GW women’s basketball team to five scorers.
In 40 minutes, Maryland showed why it’s unanimously the No. 1 team in the country.
Crystal Langhorne, a pre-season All-American, took advantage of every hole in the No. 25 GW women’s basketball team’s defense for 18 points and propelled No. 1 Maryland’s 73-48 victory in front of 7,113 at the Comcast Center at the University of Maryland-College Park in the final game of the BTI Classic.
The Terrapins out-rebounded and out-shot the Colonials (4-1) from tip-off to the final buzzer. Despite cutting the lead to one mid-way through the first half, GW went into halftime down nine, 36-22, and never made up the deficit.
“We played against a very strong GW team,” said Brenda Frese, Maryland’s head coach. “We knew GW was going to come out and be really focused. They’re a great team. It was really tough in the first half getting good shots. They’ve got great guard play. You can see how quick they are to get their shots off.”
Maryland (5-0) began the game with a 14-4 lead before junior Kim Beck, who led the Colonials with 17 points, hit back-to-back threes while classmate Sarah-Jo Lawrence, who had 15 points on 7-for-17 shooting, added a layup to cut the lead to three. GW’s strong play midway quickly evaporated, as the Terrapins ended the first half on a 9-0 run.
“What we tried to do, and it worked for the first 17 minutes of the first half, was have (junior) Whitney Allen play small (forward) and have Langhorne chase her a bit. It allowed us to run our offense through Whitney,” GW head coach Joe McKeown said. “Unfortunately, they made that run at the end of the first half. We felt pretty good about where we were until there was about 2:50 remaining in the first half.”
McKeown said that his squad wasn’t shaken up by Maryland’s run.
“Even at halftime, I thought we were fine,” McKeown said. “(I thought we could) go toe to toe to start the second half. The goal was to be under 10 with ten minutes to go. They’re such a deceivingly good offensive team. They come at you in ways. They force you to take shots a little quicker than you want to do it.”
The Colonials’ biggest struggle was under the net. Outsized by the Terrapins’ post players, GW grabbed just one offensive rebound in the first half and six for the game. The Colonials’ 30 total rebounds could not compete with Maryland’s 53.
Sophomore Jessica Adair was the only other Colonial in double digits, pulling in 10 points. She and Lawrence posted double figures in all three games over the weekend. Adair contributed a game-high 22 points in the 69-65 victory over Arizona Friday and 10 points in the 82-77 win against TCU on Saturday. Lawrence finished Friday’s game with 17 points and Saturday’s game with 20 points.
The Colonials’ victories over the Wildcats (2-2) and the Lady Frogs (0-3) both came in similar fashion. After slow starts and early second-half struggles, GW pulled away in the final minutes to take the wins. Beck was a non-factor against Arizona, netting only four points, before pulling in 18 points against TCU.
Beck and Lawrence were both named to the All-Tournament team along with Arizona’s Joy Hollingsworth, TCU’s Adrianne Ross and Maryland’s Shay Doron, who had 17 points against the Colonials, and Langhorne, the tournament’s Most Valuable Player.
The Colonials next face James Madison at home on Nov. 25 followed by Villanova on Nov. 29.
