REACTION - Maryland 84, Old Dominion 67

Learn the name "Diandra Tchatchouang" now, people. She's breaking out right before our very eyes.

Okay, we're not even to ACC play yet. We're not even close. And Maryland's yet to face a really good team, but what this girl is doing against the competition put in front of her so far is just fantastic. She had a game-high and career-high 22 points to lead the Terps to victory tonight. She went 8/11 from the floor, scoring inside and out, and 3/3 from beyond the arc and 3/5 at the free throw line. She "imposed her will inside" according to coach Brenda Frese, which is something she's been able to do whenever she's wanted to so far this season. We knew Lynetta Kizer (oh she had a fine night too; we'll get to her in a minute) was going to be an imposing force inside but we wondered if there was going to be a second one after Dee Liles was ruled academically ineligible. I think that question might have been answered. Tchatchouang can do more than just play inside though, as evidenced by her three threes. She can score from anywhere on the court and that makes her all the more dangerous. But I think the most impressive thing about her is the adjustment she's made from playing ball in France to come over here and just be so dominant so early on in her college career. I don't think anyone expected this but here we are. She's just terrific.

The best all around night, though, belongs to the team's superstar. After an off shooting night on Monday, Kizer responded by going 9/12 from the field tonight for 19 points while also grabbing 10 rebounds. It's her first of hopefully many double-doubles this season. She did whatever she wanted to inside, which was important for her after Monday's struggles. Like I've said before, she needs to dominate night in and night out if the Terps are going to succeed against the best competition and while ODU's not the best, they made the Terps break a sweat a little bit and it was key for Kizer to lead them to victory on both sides of the ball.

Dara Taylor continues to slowly take over the starting point guard position, getting 32 minutes tonight (10 more than Anjale Barrett.) And boy did she use them well. She dished out a team-high NINE assists, scored 6 points, and even grabbed 5 rebounds. Barrett, for her part, had a decent game with 10 points, 4 rebounds, and 3 assists. The 10 points came on 3/5 shooting, which is important for her to find her shot after her struggles from before, but she turned it over 5 times for a negative assist/turnover ratio once again. It's not like Taylor's was much better (9 turnovers accompanied those 9 assists) but it was better and Taylor's clearly proving herself to be the better player in the early season. It'll be interesting to see who gets the start Sunday in Starkville against Mississippi State. I think Frese will stick with Barrett for that one; I have a hard time seeing a true freshman getting her first start on the road but I suppose it's possible but not likely. I don't think Barrett's run out of chances just yet anyway.

Someone who may have lost their place in the starting lineup is Yemi Oyefuwa. She only played one minute tonight, recording only a block and a foul. It's possible she got hurt; I didn't see or hear the game since I'm in Winston Salem covering the field hockey team, but according to the play-by-play she was taken out right after the quick foul right away and never put back in. Regardless, she hadn't been playing well prior to tonight and if Tianna Hawkins keeps playing like she is, she's going to force herself in to the lineup.

Speaking of Hawkins, she put up another solid night with 11 points and 6 rebounds. She's solid night in and night out and honestly, with her and Tchatchouang showing themselves to be potent threats inside and more than adequate on the glass, Brenda could easily get away with a Taylor/Barrett (yes I listed Dara first; I really believe she's taking the PG job sooner rather than later)-Bjork-Hawkins-Tchatchouang-Kizer starting 5. On the other hand, Kizer might be better at the 4 and Hawkins might be a good 6th man off the bench. If nothing else, she has options with how well so many players are playing.

Lori Bjork also found her stroke tonight, scoring 9 points on 3/4 shooting from three. However, all 9 points came in the first half, which is kind of odd, but I believe once Maryland saw they had an inside advantage, that's where they catered their offense to.

All in all, the big story tonight was the Terps keeping the Monarchs at arm's length all night long. They shot well as a team, scorching the nets for 61.5 percent from the floor and 58.3 percent from 3 point range. Will they do that every night? Of course not. But they played very well tonight and should be proud of this victory. There are things that need to improve, like turnovers (26) and free throw shooting (65%) but this is a very good victory over a not-that-bad team. Kizer was terrific, Tchatchouang was superb, and the supporting cast stepped up as well. Now comes the first really big test as it's the first road game of the season against a Mississippi State team that played the Terps tough in College Park last year and made the second round of the NCAA tournament. But for now it's celebration time and the Terps really earned it tonight. Great win.

The Mississippi State gameday might go up a day early. If field hockey wins tomorrow afternoon (2 PM, wmucsports.com), they'll be in the national championship on Sunday afternoon at noon. In such a scenario, I wouldn't have time to get a gameday post up on the actual gameday so I'd throw it up on Saturday sometime. Just FYI.