Kristi Toliver threw her hands up in celebration as she ran back on defense after sinking a step-back, contested, game-tying triple right in front of the Maryland bench at then-TD Banknorth Garden in Boston.
There were, of course, just 6.1 seconds remaining in regulation, and the Duke Blue Devils would not get off a good look before overtime, where they fell to Toliver’s Terrapins 78-75 in the 2006 national championship game.
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Toliver was just a freshman.
It’s only fitting that the shot that built a powerhouse program still influences the Terps’ mindset to this day.
On Sunday, then-No. 20 Maryland was down big in the first half to then-No. 8 Ohio State. The Buckeyes were hitting 3 after 3 and the Terp offense wasn’t matching the onslaught in a game they needed to win to keep their momentum going. At one point, the game broadcast showed a recent Maryland timeout huddle. Head coach Brenda Frese was seen yelling at her team, imploring them to stop making unnecessary passes and instead take open shots.
“You either want the smoke or you don’t! And we want the smoke, we know who we are!,” she insisted.
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Indeed, Maryland wants the smoke.
It’s that kind of unwavering optimism from Frese, as well as nerves suited for the big moments, that has defined her tenure. It’s what empowered Toliver to hit “The Shot,” thus bringing Frese a title with three underclassmen in Toliver, sophomore Crystal Langhorne and freshman Marissa Coleman leading the way. Langhorne was one of the first dominos to fall (along with ’06 junior Shay Doron and sophomore Laura Harper): a highly coveted recruit who chose Maryland before it was cool, as she herself put it at her jersey retirement ceremony in 2008. Maryland wasn’t expected to win it all when she was a sophomore, before the program had years to build. It’s been reported that Frese remembers her team having no business being in the position they were in. She’s probably referring to herself (a then-35-year-old head coach) as much as her players. What made her stand out as a rising-star coach and allowed her to achieve the ultimate success so young, with such young players, was her approach.
The attitude remains 20 years later.
It’s not, “We’re not hitting shots, let’s try something else.” Frese never even entertains such timidity. Instead, it’s, “I have confidence in you guys … we want the smoke.”
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Addi Mack, Saylor Poffenbarger and Yarden Garzon let Brenda Frese know they want the smoke
It’s been well documented how Maryland responded on Sunday. After trailing by as many as 19, they went on a 35-11 second-half run to go from down 15 to up nine. They held on to win by one and tie the program record for largest comeback.
Freshman Addi Mack scored 4,687 points in high school and has burst onto the college scene with offensive chops despite not being a top 100 recruit. But her 3-point shot has been hot and cold, and mostly cold with a percentage of 22.6 entering Sunday.
She extended her 3-point drought to 11-straight misses with two in the first half, but then cut the Buckeye lead to 10 with a trey at 7:08 remaining in the third quarter. She went on to hit two more absolutely enormous 3s. With 1:47 left in the third, she cut it to one, and, at 8:17 in the fourth, she gave the Terps their first lead since 33 seconds into the contest. Her trio of triples over this stretch came without a miss, and she finished the game at 50 percent.
Mack scored 4,687 points in high school for a reason. Frese wasn’t going to let the freshman she has called “fearless” stop shooting.
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Mack has been critical for Maryland, giving them another scorer to help replace what Kaylene Smikle and Bri McDaniel would have brought. She’s averaging 10.8 points per game on the season, including two 20-plus performances and 17 in a single quarter. She’s done it mostly through great finishing at the basket and 2.2 made free throws per game at a stellar 86.2 percent clip. Her 3-point shot takes her game to a whole other level though, and the Terps needed it on Sunday, especially with such a reliable source of inside scoring in Isi Ozzy-Momodu leaving the game with an injury early on.
It wasn’t just Mack who answered the call.
Saylor Poffenbarger, Maryland’s redshirt senior and emotional leader, drained what proved to be the winning basket from the Ohio State logo as the shot clock expired, putting the Terps up 76-69 with 2:14 to go.
It was her second triple of the final frame, with the first putting the team up five with 7:29 remaining. She had missed nine 3s in a row before that, including her first six on Sunday. Like Mack, she didn’t back down in the face of adversity.
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Yarden Garzon, Maryland’s senior sharpshooting star who connects on 39.9 percent of her treys and leads the Big Ten with 2.9 makes per game, tallied five 3s in the contest. Three came in the third, cutting the Terps’ deficit to 12, seven and two, respectively. Her last one made it a two-possession game in Maryland’s favor with 3:04 left in the fourth.
Over the 35-11 run, Mack totaled 11 points, Garzon had two 3s and a layup for eight, season-leading scorer Oluchi Okananwa added seven, Poffenbarger was good for five and Mir McLean chipped in with four.
What a response, and what a team effort.
For the game, Okananwa and Garzon each had 17, Mack had 14, Poffenbarger had 13 and McLean tossed in eight. Poffenbarger (11 rebounds) and Okananwa (10), notched double-doubles and both registered four assists and three steals.
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How far can this attitude take the Terps?
On Saturday, before the Ohio State game, the Terps came in at No. 13 in the NCAA selection committee’s first top 16 reveal, meaning if the season had ended then, they would have been a No. 4 seed in the Big Dance and a host school for the first two rounds.
On Tuesday morning, ESPN moved Maryland up one line in their Bracketology to a No. 3. They are 1-1 in Quad 2 games and a very impressive 6-5 against Quad 1. All of their Quad 1 wins have come at opposing teams’ arenas or a neutral site (the Kentucky win), and, as of Sunday, only No. 2 UCLA and No. 8 Louisville had more true road Quad 1 wins.
Maryland has to be really satisfied with all that. They haven’t taken their foot off the gas since beating now-No. 18 Michigan State by 16, as they’ve gone on to defeat Nebraska by 18 and Penn State by 19 before taking down a very good Ohio State team. All of this in response to a four-game losing streak that had many believing they simply couldn’t overcome their injuries.
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But the job isn’t done. Maryland must not sleep on their next two opponents (Purdue and Northwestern), and then all the focus shifts toward picking up another statement win on the road at No. 6 Michigan. Then comes the Big Ten Tournament, which brings the opportunity to pick up multiple ranked wins, as well as, potentially, see UCLA again for a revenge game.
I don’t want to talk about Maryland’s chances of beating UCLA and what it would mean if they did. They’re certainly not thinking about that. But when the Michigan game rolls around, they will believe they have a shot. Then, they’ll believe they have a shot if and when they face the Bruins.
As Frese told her team after Sunday’s triumph, “We should never show up and allow any team to make us feel inferior. Because we’re that good.”
If they just stay calm, they can achieve great things. As I noted early on during Sunday’s game, Ohio State was benefitting from unsustainable shooting. As long as Maryland kept battling, the game could turn in their favor—and it did.
Maryland has already accomplished things this season that no one can ever take away. The 21st 20-win season under Frese (in 24 tries) came with the win over the Nittany Lions, and the win over the Buckeyes meant something too, because, as Frese always says, “Road wins are precious.”
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Every step along the way is precious. But, of course, the Terps want more. And despite all their recent success, the road to greater accomplishments remains extremely difficult.
But Maryland wants that smoke.
