Lady Terps Ride is over

Sadly, the basketball season for the University of Maryland's women's team came to an end Monday, as the Terps fell to Stanford. Maryland played well offensively but couldn't stop Stanford's Candice Wiggins who singlehandedly led Stanford to a victory over Maryland with her 41 points.

Every time MD went on a run and started gaining confidence, Wiggins was there on the other end to swing the pendulum back in Stanford's favor. It seemed like every time MD nailed a 3 and began to get close, Wiggins was there to answer on the other end. Maryland had no answer to her on defense. Credit to her and Stanford for running the triangle offense to near perfection, something no other ACC team does and thus that might have been why Maryland had such a hard time defending against it.

Although it was disappointing that Maryland didn't make it back to the Final 4, what was even more devastating was that this was the final game for Crystal Langhorne and Laura Harper. Those two, especially Langhorne, were highly touted recruits who Brenda Freese convinced should come to Maryland and help revitalize a program and put it back into the National Spotlight. The fact that Harper got injured her freshman year just allowed Langhorne to develop more and faster, eventually resulting in her being Maryland's all time leading scorer. After Shay Duron decided to come to Maryland, the fact the Crystal and Harper did the following year, helped show people that Maryland was for real. Then they went out and won the 2006 National Championship game. Maryland will still be great next year, but losing Crystal and Laura, in addition to Ashleigh Newman, Jade Perry, and Sa'de Wiley-Gatewood is going to hurt.
After all, how can losing the best player in Maryland Women's hoops history not hurt you?

Best of luck girls, we'll miss you.