Collegiate Times

Five games into their Atlantic Coast Conference schedule, the only thing that has been consistent about the Hokies' women's basketball team is inconsistency.

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Following a big win against Miami on Sunday, the Hokies could not use that momentum to their advantage, as they fell to the Maryland Terrapins 60-44 Thursday night.

The Hokies were dealt a blow before the game was even started, as they did not have starting point guard Nikki Davis. Davis tweaked her knee in practice Tuesday and did not dress for the game.

The injury comes at a terrible time because Davis is coming off a career best 29 points in her previous game. With Davis unable to play, the Hokies used a combination of Alyssa Fenyn, Lindsay Biggs, and Utahya Drye to handle the ball.

The game started off with the Hokies taking advantage of some sloppy play by Maryland. In the first ten minutes, the Terrapins turned the ball over 11 times leading to 12 Tech points.

Once the game settled down a bit, Drye began to assert herself more. Playing further from the basket because of Davis’ injury, Drye initiated almost all of the Hokies successful possessions.

Besides Drye’s 15 points, the Hokies had a lot of trouble putting the ball in the basket. The Hokies shot just 22 percent in the first half despite many opportunities that included nine offensive rebounds.

Because Biggs was thrust into the point guard role, she struggled to find her shot and get into a groove.

“It’s a little harder to score from the point guard position,” Biggs said. “You are trying to worry about other things like getting the offense set up and trying to lead, and all that kind of stuff… once you give it up, sometimes its hard to get it back in a position to score.”

Despite poor shooting, the Hokies were tied with Maryland with seven minutes to go in the half. Unfortunately for the Hokies, Maryland tightened up its offense and dominated the last minutes, going on a 16-7 run thanks to Lori Bjork’s 11 points in that span including three shots from behind the arc. At the half, the Hokies trailed 29-22.

“She’s a great three point shooter and when we stayed right on top of her and made her put the ball on the floor we did a good job defensively,” Tech head coach Beth Dunkenberger said. “Unfortunately, as the first half wore on, whoever was on her got tired and sliced through the screen instead of staying on top of her and all se needs is that second to get it off.”

The second half started with a spark as the Hokies scored four quick points to close the gap to three.

However, that energy evaporated quickly because of several turnovers and quick shots that led to easy Maryland baskets. After cutting the lead to three, Maryland went on an 11-0 run to earn a very comfortable 14-point lead.

After the run, the Terrapins slowed things down and maintain their lead with a steady dose of center Lynetta Kizer. Kizer had just three points at half time, but finished with 18 points after being Maryland’s most utilized weapon in the second half.

“First half I thought we did a good job keeping her off the boards and we kept her to that one three,” said Hokies’ center Brittany Gordon. “Second half we knew she was going to pound it in. When she has it, she is hard to stop.”

The loss puts the Hokies at 12-8 overall (2-4 in the ACC) with their next game being Sunday at No. 25 Georgia Tech. If the Hokies hope to rebound from this loss, they must improve in several aspects, especially if Davis can’t play.

“First and foremost we have to work on rebounding, because our rebounding numbers are horrendous right now, especially on the defensive end,” Dunkenberger said. “The second thing is that we have to be ready for Georgia Tech pressure. Last time we were down there, they pressed us a lot and my guess is that they are looking at Nikki not playing and working on all kinds of full court presses.”