COLLEGE PARK — Roughly seven minutes into the Maryland women's basketball team's matchup against Towson on Sunday afternoon, Maryland center Brionna Jones swatted Tigers guard Shanea Butler's mid-range jumper to protect the Terps' 11-10 lead.
Terps forward Tierney Pfirman corralled the loose ball and launched it forward to guard Kristen Confroy. After a few dribbles, Confroy saw Jones sprinting toward the basket, and tossed the ball to her for an open layup to make it 13-10.
The fast break was part of a 22-2 scoring run for No. 15 Maryland, as its dominant transition offense helped the team cruise to an 81-52 win against Towson at Xfinity Center.
"We like playing like this," Terps coach Brenda Frese said. "It's a fun style of play."
The Terps (7-2) had 23 assists on 34 baskets, and all but one player on the roster had an assist in the game. Jones (Aberdeen) led the team with 17 points and eight rebounds. Forward Shatori Walker-Kimbrough shot 7 of 9 from the field for 15 points and grabbed five rebounds.
The win stopped a two-game losing streak for Maryland, while Towson (3-6) has now lost four of its last five games as well as its last five against the Terps.
Currently in their first season since star forward Alyssa Thomas' departure, the Terps have focused on speeding up their ball movement, especially in transition. Last year, Thomas usually would have the ball during fast breaks, snagging defensive rebounds before dribbling the length of the court and slicing though defenses for layups.
"You want to go your strengths, and Alyssa's was power," Frese said. "You couldn't stop her in transition going down the court."
Without Thomas, the Terps rely more on quick passes on fast breaks, hoping to spread out defenses and orchestrate easy scoring opportunities.
"When we move the ball, it makes the zone defense shift," guard Lexie Brown said. "And since we're going to see so much zone, our ball movement is so important."
The change in tactics has helped Maryland become more balanced offensively, with four of its five starters — guard Laurin Mincy, Brown, Walker-Kimbrough and Jones — each averaging 10 points or more per game.
Four players on Maryland reached double figures in scoring Sunday, while Towson forward LaTorri Hines-Allen, was the team's only double-digit scorer with 21 points on 9 of 22 shooting.
"With their offensive boards and their transition game, they were going to get some easy baskets," Towson coach Niki Reid Geckeler said.
Before the Terps' offensive spurt, though, the Tigers were in control.
Hines-Allen had eight points in the opening 3:27, giving the Tigers an early 10-7 lead. Maryland shot 3 of 10 from the field in the first six minutes, but once the offense found it's rhythm, Towson couldn't keep up.
"Of course it's a downer just for a like a half of a second," Hines-Allen said of the Terps' run. "But we [couldn't] dwell on that. We had to move forward and finish the game out."
Maryland started the second half in a full-court press, forcing the Tigers into mistakes and preventing them from gathering momentum. Walker-Kimbrough led the Terps with 11 points in the second half, and the Tigers never got within 20 points in the period.
"Once we were able to get in the groove and settle down, I thought our transition game got going," Frese said. "We were able to move the basketball and really be unselfish in our play."
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