The AU women’s basketball team is only three games into the regular season, and the young club’s offense is slowly growing.
However, they ran into the wrong team at the wrong time Nov. 21.
After being upset at St. Joseph’s four days earlier, the No. 10 Maryland Terrapins cruised past the Eagles, 94-54, at the Comcast Center in College Park, Md.
“We’ve been talking about having a fast start, but we were definitely motivated,” Maryland head coach Brenda Frese said. “Given the tough loss the other night, we wanted to bounce back quickly and be able to not look back.”
Maryland (3-1) quickly took advantage of an undersized AU team, as the Terrapins continuously crashed the offensive glass and capitalized on Eagle turnovers.
The duo of Tianna Hawkins and Malina Howard combined for 42 points and 16 rebounds to lead the Terps, who scored over 90 points for the first time this year. Maryland scored a majority of its points down low, finishing with 65 points in the paint to AU’s 24.
“I felt like we were outmatched in a lot of different spots on the floor, so they definitely won a lot of individual battles," AU head coach Matt Corkery said.
AU (0-3) tried to utilize its new motion offense but the much longer, quicker Maryland defense forced 14 first-half turnovers to turn an early 10-6 edge into a 20-6 lead with 12 minutes left until halftime.
Maryland outrebounded the Eagles 22-8 in the first half, including controlling 12 offensive rebounds to AU’s one, and took a 47-21 lead into halftime. The Terps also scored 19 points off turnovers during the opening 20 minutes.
“One thing about playing against a really good team, every mistake you make is exploited,” Corkery said. “Other teams on our schedule just won't do that. [Maryland] can exploit all the mistakes you can make, and unfortunately we're a team that makes a lot of mistakes right now."
AU reduced the turnovers and converted five 3-pointers in the second half, shooting 46 percent from behind the arc and 42 percent from the floor. Geleisa George paced the Eagles with a team-high 13 points.
“We played in spurts and did good things, so I definitely think we can take some positives from how we played, especially on the offensive end in the second half,” Corkery said.
The Eagles will next take on Elon Nov. 24 at 2 p.m. before hosting Maryland-Baltimore County in their home opener Nov. 27 at 7 p.m.
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