This was not the way women’s basketball Head Coach Katie Meier expected her team to rebound after a heartbreaking overtime loss to Florida State on Jan. 24.
Instead of playing with their usual competitive, gritty style, the University of Miami women’s basketball team came out flat Thursday night and was soundly beaten by the No. 5-ranked Maryland Terrapins, 90-50, their fourth straight defeat.
Miami (8-13, 1-4) used an effective half-court press to take a brief early lead, but after guard Maurita Reid picked up her second foul and had to sit, the Terrapins (23-2, 7-1) pulled away and never looked back. Maryland ended the first half on a 20-5 run and took a commanding 44-23 lead into the locker room.
Leading scorer Crystal Langhorne was joined in double figures by Marah Strickland , Laura Harper and Marissa Coleman, who recorded 14, 13 and 12, respectively. . Harper led Maryland with eight rebounds, as the Terrapins out-rebounded Miami 35-24. Kristi Tolliver added seven points and a game-high 10 assists.
Reid was the only Hurricane to reach double figures, scoring 15 points, as the Canes shot a meager 40.4 percent from the field.
Coach Meier was surprised by her team’s poor display of shooting, especially from the outside, where they made only 6-of-20 three-point shots.
“I didn’t think we’d have as much trouble scoring as we did,” Meier said. “We need to fix that.”
When asked about her plans for the next few days of practice, Meier said she expects to find out about her team’s character.
“I’m just going to challenge our toughness, Meier said. “We didn’t play with the toughness I needed to see tonight, mentally or physically.”
Jon Moss may be contacted at j.moss@umiami.edu.