Maryland Women’s Basketball: Post Presence and Rebounding Prowess

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The Maryland Women’s Basketball team displays its dominance on the court by being physical on the boards, dominant inside the paint and scoring. The dominance starts with sophomore center Brionna Jones.  She is a point-rebound double-double machine. She has 14 double-doubles this season and averages 12.9 points per game and nine rebounds per game this season. She ranks one, two and 10 in field goal percentage category with her team, the Big 10 and the nation at a 60.1  percentage. This proves she takes great shots and helps her team by doing so.

The Lady Terps own teams on the boards because they make it a point to box out, get defensive rebounds and push the ball down the floor as soon as they see the opportunity. What that does is throw off defenses, not allow them to get set and tire them out physically. The Lady Terps have an 11-rebound advantage over their opponents this season: Maryland (42.1 RPG)/Opponents (31.5 RPG). That’s the Lady Terps’ M.O., that’s how they’ve won a majority of their games. Rebounds add extra possessions to a team’s offense and if a team is able to get offensive boards, second chance points keep coming.

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Jones’ fellow sophomore teammates Lexie Brown and Shatori Walker-Kimbrough assist her in Maryland’s charge for a National Title. To have a dominant player with post presence in Jones, a point guard who can shoot, drive to the basket and set her teammates to score in Brown and a solid wing player in Walker-Kimbrough who can do just about anything is a scary sight for any team to face, because you can’t focus on just one player. In the Lady’s Terps’ case, one player can take over a game, and they have many players who can play the role of leader on the floor. Teams that play the Terps have to worry about all five starters on the floor because they each bring an added dimension to the team as a whole.

The Maryland Women’s Basketball team has proven that they are elite level competition. After beating New Mexico State, Princeton, Duke and Tennessee — a team they met once before in the NCAA Tournament — the Lady Terps play the Connecticut Huskies for a spot in the National Championship game. A tough test for anyone to handle, the defending Women’s NCAA Champions are a team that has playmakers of their own. Coached by Geno Auriemma and led by Breanna Stewart, the Lady Terps will have their hands full come Sunday April 5th.

Next: Twitter reacts to Melo Trimble returning to Maryland for sophomore season