Maryland pulls away from UVa

In College Park, Md., in a matter of minutes in the middle of the second half, No. 9 Maryland pulled away and disposed of No. 17 Virginia, 94-78, to exact revenge for an earlier loss in the border war rivalry.

With the win, Maryland improved to 20-4 and remained a player in the race for the league title at 8-2 in the ACC. Virginia, 19-5 overall, drops into a logjam in fifth place in the league at 5-4. The Cavaliers are tied for fifth with Boston College and Georgia Tech.

After falling behind early, Virginia appeared primed for a second-half run that would match its previous success against the Terrapins.

It was not to be.

After trimming the deficit to two points, at 59-57, with 11:12 left in the game, Virginia’s defense crumbled and the offense was inept, allowing Maryland to pull away quickly for good.

The Terps shot 50 percent from the field (34 of 68) and 42.9 percent from behind the 3-point line (9 of 21).

“It was like what happened in Charlottesville, but reverse,” Virginia guard Monica Wright said. “There was a four-minute segment in the second half where we went on a run in Charlottesville, and they went on that run tonight and we couldn’t get it back from there.

“The thing was that we couldn’t make shots, and I feel like we we aren’t making shots and it is a game like this when shots are falling for them, our defense is not playing well, it is going to be a big problem. I feel like if we would have played just a little bit better defensively in the second half and been able to get stops and rebounds, basically our bread and butter, we could have focused on our fastbreak and the transition. We couldn’t get that done.”

In the process of sealing the win the Terrapins went on a 12-2 run that was fueled by a pair of 3-pointers from Marah Strickland, giving Maryland a decisive 71-59 advantage.

Virginia was unable to trim the lead to single digits in the game’s final minutes.

In the first half, the Cavaliers took their first lead on a 3-pointer from Kristen London with 10:44 left. The senior’s long-range shot gave UVa an 18-17 lead, which they kept for almost four minutes.

“Everybody knows it, but every team in the ACC is good,” Virginia guard Ariana Moorer said. “We just have to come out and play harder. We didn’t get enough stops on defense. We need to learn from this.”

For the game, Virginia shot 38.7 percent from the floor (29 of 75), but won the rebounding battle, 48-35.

Aisha Mohammed led Virginia with 18 points and 17 rebounds. Wright and Moorer added 14 and 12 points, respectively.

Maryland was led by Marissa Coleman’s 28-point performance. Harrisonburg native Kristi Tolliver added 25 points, five assists and two of the Terps’ nine steals.

Coleman’s 3-pointer with 14:09 remaining erased a 51-50 deficit and started a 9-0 spree that put the Terrapins ahead for good. Coleman moved past Vicky Bullett on Maryland’s career scoring list with 1,931 points, trailing only Crystal Langhorne (2,247). 

Toliver became the fourth player in ACC history to reach 700 assists. The Terrapins’ career assists leader is at 704 after getting five. Former Virginia stars Sharnee Zoll and Dawn Staley hold the top two positions.

Virginia will play Sunday at N.C. State at 3:30 p.m.