Cougars Fall 103-51 To No. 8 Terps As Shots Don't
COLLEGE PARK, Md. (AP) -- On a day when Maryland's Alyssa Thomas hit a rebounding milestone, it helped that the College of Charleston kept missing shots.
Afreyea Tolbert scored 20 points but got little help from her teammates before halftime as the Cougars fell 103-51 to the No. 8 Terrapins in the Terrapin Classic championship Sunday.
Breanna Bolden added 11 points and Jazz Green scored 10 for Charleston, which saw its three-game win streak snapped and its hopes of an upset dashed well before halftime.
"It doesn't affect any confidence," Tolbert said of the defeat. "We're just going to go into practice and work on the things that we need to work on and just start getting prepared for our next game."
Thomas scored a season-high 28 points and grabbed her 1,000th rebound, one of 10 on the day, to lead Maryland to its 10th straight win. Shatori Walker-Kimbrough added 15 points and Tierney Pfirman scored 10 for the Terps.
Tolbert was the only Charleston player to make a field goal in the first half, which ended 54-15, marking both the most points allowed and least points scored in a half by the Cougars this season.
Tolbert's teammates were 0 for 21 from the field in the first 20 minutes before Bolden hit an inside basket that made it 58-19 early in the second half.
The Cougars conclude their non-conference schedule next Friday against East Carolina before opening CAA play against a Drexel team that scared Maryland before ultimately falling here 69-63 in late November.
"Drexel, they play hard, they play together, they're a veteran team," said Charleston coach Natasha Adair, whose team shot just 26 percent (17 of 66) for the game. "And the same shots that we took, they took (against Maryland). But theirs fell."
By the time Bolden made her first field goal, Thomas had scored 22 points, including 20 before halftime, turning from facilitator to scorer a day after contributing 10 assists in a triple-double.
Thomas had already hit three inside baskets before Tolbert made Charleston's first field goal 5:31 in. Later in the half, Thomas scored eight consecutive points for Maryland as the lead grew to 45-13.
Through that barrage, Tolbert, who scored 11 points before halftime, just tried to maintain a positive mindset.
"I just knew that our team was going to be in the right spots," she said. "It's just part of the game. Sometimes they fall, and sometimes they don't."
Thomas reached the milestone with her 10th and final rebound of the game, leading to her last field goal, a putback that pushed it to 91-40.
Coach Brenda Frese then substituted for the senior, who played 23 minutes, before an appreciative crowd.
(Copyright 2013 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
