Todd Carton of SB Nation's Testudo Times offered a full breakdown of Maryland's Final Four matchup with Notre Dame, concluding that the Terps might not need to be well-versed in the ways of the force to pull off a victory but will definitely need a strong performance from star Alyssa Thomas.
So will Maryland need to appeal to Obi-Wan Kenobi to challenge Notre Dame offensively? Likely not. In terms of scoring, Maryland can match Notre Dame's balance and they are nearly as efficient. Though Thomas is the Terps' leading scorer by a wide margin, the Terps have five other players averaging over six and a half, including Lexie Brown who has joined Thomas as a double figure scorer. However, if Notre Dame can shut down Thomas - something they failed to do in the first match-up - more than one player will have to step up with a big game. As should be clear from the analysis above, even without Achonwa, a team will need to score a lot of points to beat the Irish.
In their first meeting back in January, Thomas had 29 points, 12 rebounds, 5 assists, and 2 steals - she's not an easy matchup for Notre Dame (or anyone) and figuring out how to stop her will go a long way to helping the Irish advance to the championship game.
For more analysis of the game, check out the preview at Testudo Times. For more on the Final Four, check out our Final Four storystream.