Second-seeded Stanford made 14 three-pointers and senior guard Candice Wiggins scored a game-high 41 points to end the careers of the most successful class in Maryland history in the Spokane Region final on Monday night.
Maryland junior guard Kristi Toliver scored a career-high 35 points, but her effort wasn’t nearly enough to send the Terrapins to the Final Four and prolong the collegiate careers of seniors Crystal Langhorne, Laura Harper, Jade Perry, Ashleigh Newman and Sa’de Wiley-Gatewood.
The Terrapins (33-4) walked off the floor of the Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena after being dominated, 98-87, as their season ended by allowing more points in an NCAA Tournament than had ever been allowed by a top-seeded team.
“As a senior, I didn’t want my career to end and neither did the rest of the seniors,” Langhorne said as tears rolled down her cheeks.
Langhorne and Harper led a class that helped leave an indelible mark on the program. Since arriving in College Park as freshmen in 2004, Maryland’s seniors captured the team’s first national title and set the program record for wins (34) in 2006, earned a No. 1 seed in the tournament for the second time and recorded four-straight 20-win seasons for the first time in school history. The Terrapins’ seniors went 117-24, including a mark of 11-3 in the NCAA Tournament, during their careers.
Langhorne, the first player at Maryland to be named All-Atlantic Coast Conference in each of her four seasons, ended her career with 13 points and eight rebounds against the Cardinal. Harper finished with 10 points and nine rebounds.
Maryland coach Brenda Frese explained after the loss Maryland’s seniors should relish their achievements instead of focusing on what could have been.
“As difficult as right now is for our team and for our locker room,” Frese said. “I don’t want to be sad that it’s over. I want to be happy that it happened. They (the seniors) have raised the standard for Maryland basketball and I think that’s why the pain is there just because we have had such a tremendous experience with them.”
The Terrapins can count on Toliver, junior Marissa Coleman, freshman Marah Strickland and a nationally ranked recruiting class that features four Parade Magazine All-Americans to push the squad next season.
Monday’s game was especially hard to take for the Terrapins. Maryland was 30-1 when outshooting opponents and 113-9 since 2004-05 when grabbing more rebounds. The Terrapins shot 54.1 percent from the field compared to 50.8 percent for the Cardinal (34-3), and crashed the boards for a 36-29 rebounding edge, but still came up short.
“It’s never fun to lose, but I feel so bad for this group of seniors,” Toliver said. “It’s sad that we’ll never play together again.”
Langhorne, the Terrapins’ foundation for her career, wasn’t ready for Maryland’s great run to finish.
“It’s never going to be like this anymore,” she said. “The team atmosphere, it’s never going to be like this anymore and we just didn’t want it to end.”
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