No. 5 Terps trample UMBC by 50

COLLEGE PARK, Md. — Following a down-to-the-wire 78-72 victory over Louisville Thursday, the Maryland Terrapins faced the University of Maryland, Baltimore County Retrievers Sunday afternoon and, not surprisingly, played like the Maryland Terrapins.

The Terps prevailed easily, scoring 50 points in the second half to win 92-42.

“After four road games, three really tough games, it’s just great to be able to come home in front of our tremendous fans and continue to play extremely well,” head coach Brenda Frese said. “I thought our starters set the tone early for us and then I thought we were able to really extend with our depth.”

Senior Shatori Walker-Kimbrough — Maryland’s leading scorer with 17.1 points per game — continued rolling off the momentum of her 26-point performance Thursday.

Walker-Kimbrough and fellow senior Brionna Jones, who finished with 16 points and 12 rebounds against Louisville, combined for nine of the Terps’ first 12 points. They finished with nine and six points, respectively.

Frese used the pair for just 14 minutes of game action apiece Sunday, giving Walker-Kimbrough a chance to rest after playing 40 minutes against Louisville.

Despite the limited minutes, both seniors were able to move up in the record books: Walker-Kimbrough rose to ninth on Maryland’s all-tie scoring list with 1,628 career points, and Jones became the eighth-highest Maryland rebounder with a career total of 907.

Junior Kristen Confroy, who was 1-for-5 from beyond the arc Thursday, bounced back early Sunday, nailing three treys in the first half to double her season total. She lead all scorers with 11 points on 4-of-4 shooting at the break.

She was hot in the second half, too, tacking on another two threes within the first three minutes of the third quarter. She finished with a game-high 17 points in 17 minutes.

“You always can kind of see a team where their confidence or ego goes after a great win,” Frese said regarding the Louisville win. “I thought we came out in our practice yesterday just really hungry and had a really good, solid practice [and] competed even though we were fatigued. I thought we were still pretty fatigued today but I thought we fought hard, didn’t play the score and tried to get better. I like the mentality.”

The Terps also got back to their roots defensively, forcing 10 UMBC turnovers in the first half including a shot-clock violation on the Retrievers’ first offensive possession of the game.

Maryland was also able to get into UMBC’s passing lanes, racking up 12 steals and recording 26 points off Retriever turnovers.

Junior Laura Castaldo was aggressive offensively for UMBC, finishing with a team-high 13 points. Her offensive contributions were counterbalanced by UMBC’s 20 total turnovers though, and wouldn’t be enough to hurt Maryland too badly.

Destiny Slocum, who finished with nine points for Maryland, said that no matter who the Terps face, the approach never really changes.

“If we were to change our mentality, then that would just make us a weak team,” she said. “Every opponent that we play out there is...the best in the country, that’s the mentality that we have to have.”