As Valentine’s Days go, this one couldn’t have been a lot better for Brenda Frese and the 10th positioned Maryland Terrapins.
Regardless of various impediments, the powerful Terrapins moved to a 95-73 success over Nebraska on Sunday, giving Frese her record 500th win with the program.
Frese, 500-130 in her nineteenth season at Maryland, passed Hall of Fame mentor Chris Weller, who dominated 499 games from 1975 to 2002.
“I spoke to her this past week, and I already have a message from her,” Frese said after the game. “I can’t say enough about her grace and dignity. She was so proud I was going to pass her.
“We both know records are made to broken.”
Ashley Owusu scored 25 points, Diamond Miller added 24 and the Terrapins (14-2, 10-1 Big Ten Conference) made it look simple. A 12-0 run from the get-go in the main period put the Terrapins up 14-4, and by halftime it was 51-33, as Chloe Bibby scored every one of the 16 of her focuses.
That is considerably more impressive considering Maryland hadn’t played in 10 days – their last game deferred as a result of their adversary’s COVID-19 conventions – and they showed up in Nebraska the morning of the game in view of climate conditions.
“I just marvel at this team, they didn’t even flinch,” Frese said. “After two travel delays, no playing in 10 days and having that start … you were able to see there wasn’t any rust.”
Mimi Collins added 19 focuses for the Terrapins, who shot 56% (39-of-70) to establish a precedent for most focuses by a rival group in Pinnacle Bank Arena.
Ruby Porter scored a profession high 19 focuses for the Cornhuskers (9-10, 7-8), who have lost four straight and are 0-13 against the Terrapins. Kate Cain and Isabelle Bourne adding 17 focuses with Bourne getting 10 bounce back.
Nebraska had a 10-0 run and close to the halfway purpose of the third time frame slice the deficiency to 56-46, yet Owusu energized a 15-0 run and scored 12 in the time frame, which finished with the Terrapins on top 77-50.
Frese was lead trainer at Ball State for two seasons and Minnesota for one and is 556-160 of every 22 seasons. Incidentally, she got her 500th vocation succeed at Nebraska two years prior.
“It’s something I’m extremely proud of,” she said. “Sometimes we make it look really easy, but it’s really difficult. … You hope as you do things the right way those things take care of themselves.
“There’s no other group I’d rather be with … going through this season, all the things that we’ve had to experience, is really something I’m going to remember for a lifetime.”
Maryland is home against Illinois on Wednesday. Nebraska goes to No. 21 Northwestern on Thursday.