Written by DCist contributor Brett Gellman

Area NCAA basketball fans may be out of luck in the men’s tournament, but the women are still providing plenty of thrills. The top-seeded Terrapins (30-4) defeated #9 Utah (23-10) in the second round of the Women’s NCAA Tournament and advanced to their third Sweet Sixteen in four years.

The Terps’ two celebrated seniors, Marissa Coleman and Kristi Toliver, were the team’s top scorers with 18 and 17 points respectively.

Perhaps the most glaring note on the stat sheet is that the Terps out rebounded the Utes 54 to 24. What is even more noteworthy is that Coleman collected 18 of them herself, a career-high in her final game in College Park.

It also helped that Maryland shot 60 percent in the first half, which allowed the Terps to possess a 16 point lead going into halftime.

While perennial powers such as Duke, UNC, and Tennessee have already faced stunning, early exits out of the tournament, the road to the Final Four for head coach Brenda Frese and her team is still daunting with UConn, Stanford, and Oklahoma remaining in the field.

The women now head to Raleigh, North Carolina to face fourth-seeded Vanderbilt on Saturday, March 28, with tipoff scheduled for 2:30 p.m. on ESPN/ESPN2. If they are able to defeat the Commodores, they would then face the winner of #3 Louisville vs. #2 Baylor next Monday.