Wake Forest University
Maryland
Wake Forest Edged By No. 4 Maryland, 72-70
3/6/2009 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
March 6, 2009
GREENSBORO, N.C. (AP) -Another Atlantic Coast Conference tournament was about to end in disappointingly early fashion for Kristi Toliver. Then the Maryland star did what she does best: Hit the big shots when the Terrapins needed them most.
Toliver scored 10 of her 15 points in the second half, and No. 4 Maryland rallied from 12 points down to beat Wake Forest 72-70 on Friday in the ACC quarterfinals.
League rookie of the year Lynetta Kizer had 16 points and 11 rebounds for the top-seeded Terrapins (26-4), the regular-season co-champs who took a successful first step toward claiming the conference title that has eluded Toliver and Marissa Coleman during their first three seasons.
"The one thing we haven't accomplished since we've been here - we've got the national championship and just recently got the regular season" title, Coleman said. "So this is the last thing on the agenda."
Maryland held the Demon Deacons without a field goal for 9 minutes during a 19-2 run late in the game, won its 10th straight and advanced to the semifinals against No. 11 North Carolina, the fourth seed.
Alex Tchangoue and Corinne Groves each scored 16 points for Wake Forest (19-11), which appeared headed for the biggest victory in school history midway through the second half before going cold.
"We stopped scoring. Bottom line," coach Mike Petersen said. "They're a great team, and you're not going to hold them without scoring forever."
Yet the Demon Deacons had one last chance in the final minute. Groves hit a jumper with 47.3 seconds left to pull within 70-67 and they forced a stop at about the 30-second mark before Brooke Thomas' drive to the basket bounced off the rim with about 8 seconds left.
Toliver made it a five-point game by hitting two free throws with 4.8 seconds left before Tchangoue added a 3-pointer at the buzzer.
Coleman had 12 points on 5-of-13 shooting and Demauria Liles added 11 for the Terrapins, who took the first step toward their first ACC tournament title since 1989 while winning for the 13th time in 14 games.
And they have Toliver to thank for it.
The league's newly named player of the year and the star of Maryland's 2006 national title run missed eight of her first nine attempts and finished 4-for-14 from the field. But seemingly each of those baskets came in timely fashion for the Terps.
"We covered her really good. But when the game got close, you knew she was going to try to take over," Petersen said. "You know that she's a phenomenal offensive player that's made clutch shots her whole career, and today was no different."
They trailed 63-51 with about 10 minutes left when Toliver knocked down a 3-pointer to start the decisive run. She connected again 5 minutes later from long range to pull the Terps within one point, and Coleman's fast-break layup with 4 minutes left made it 66-65 - their first lead since late in the first half.
"We didn't look back from there," Toliver said of her second 3.
Thomas finished with 15 points for the Demon Deacons, who were denied their first victory over a ranked team since 2007 and their first victory in the series since 2002. They've never beaten a team ranked higher than seventh, and that upset came against Maryland in 1993.
They'll have to wait until Selection Monday to learn whether they'll get another chance - in either the NCAA tournament or the WNIT - to secure the program's first 20-win season since they were 23-8 in 1986-87.
"I have a real good sense of where we're sitting. I just don't like it very much," Petersen said. "Are we among the 64 or 65 best teams in the country? You just watched ... Sure we are, absolutely. Have we done enough to warrant getting an at large? I doubt it. You have to be realistic."
For a while, this one looked like it was destined to be another lopsided victory for Maryland, which led by nine points with about 6 minutes before halftime.
But the Demon Deacons tightened things up while showing significantly more resistance than they did in a 92-65 loss two months earlier in College Park.
Some potent long-range shooting helped them creep back into the game with a 16-5 run. Brittany Waters hit consecutive 3-pointers before Camille Collier connected from beyond the arc to put Wake Forest up 38-36 with 1:55 before the break.
After shooting nearly 52 percent in the first half, Wake Forest really started clicking during a 17-8 run to open the second half. The Demon Deacons pushed their lead to 59-47 with 11 1/2 minutes left when Collier hit a long 3 from the key.
"Luckily, Kristi and I have been in this position before, so we were able to keep the rest of the team composed," Coleman said. "You're not going to always be hot, so it came down to the intangibles, getting rebounds, defending towards the end of the game."
