Big Ten Tournament: Lexie Brown pushes Maryland to Semifinals

Head Coach Brenda Frese shared a great quote for her team in the locker room before the game:

"March is about marching on. March is about controlling your destiny to march on. You gotta understand what I love about March is the team that has the stronger mindset, the team that is the most resilient, is the team that marches on – Brenda Frese"

It was Lexie Brown’s game today as she led the Maryland Terrapin women’s basketball team to their 10-point victory over Michigan State. She scored a dominating 27 points and added four rebounds and two assists in addition to an 8-of-9 shooting day from the free-throw line.

The Lady Terps outplayed the Spartans in three major categories:

Shooting Percentage: Maryland (49 percent)/Michigan State (32 percent)
Assists: Maryland (11 assists)/Michigan State (10 assists)
Steals: Maryland (six steals)/Michigan State (10 steals)

The  game started slowly for the Spartans, as six minutes into the game they were 0-for-7 from the field. It seemed like the basket had a lid on top of it during the early part, and both teams turned the ball over at the same rate. Lexie Brown had six of Maryland’s first 11 points to start the game and showed a great ability to score inside. She had several plays where she made it appear easy to drive the lane and score. She made two solid plays back to back, making Maryland’s only three-point attempt of the game and followed it up by intercepting a pass and taking it the length of the court for an easy layup.

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Aerial Powers had the same ability in this game as well. The red shirt sophomore from Detroit, Michigan had a double-double (26 points and 10 rebounds) in addition  to shooting 85 percent from the free-throw line on 12-of-14 shots. Fortunately for the Terps, she wasn’t that much of a factor down the stretch.

This win speaks to Maryland’s defensive strategy in the game. As I mentioned in a previous article, the Lady Terps needed to press the basketball and that’s exactly what they did, causing turnovers and being physical on the boards. It helped also that the rest of Michigan State’s starting five didn’t do much to help their cause. Powers and Tori Jankoska scored 45 of the Spartans’ 60 points. That certainly would seem to indicate that the other players aren’t pulling their weight.

The Terps played an outstanding game both offensively and defensively: being physical on the boards, running the floor and pressuring Michigan State on defense.

Their next opponent in the semis will be the Northwestern Wildcats. Game time is 7 pm tommorow. The game can be seen on the Big Ten Network.

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