updated 10:01 a.m. ET April 3, 2006

BOSTON - Maryland took it slow, took it inside, and took all the fun out of the Tar Heels.

The Terrapins — the only team to beat No. 1 North Carolina this season — one-upped their own upset Sunday night, beating the Tar Heels 81-70 in the NCAA women’s national semifinal. Now Maryland will play for the first women’s basketball title in school history.

And the Terps did it their way: bumping feisty North Carolina point guard Ivory Latta, outmuscling the energetic, uptempo Tar Heels and forcing a halfcourt game that wiped the smiles right off their faces.

In just four years under coach Brenda Frese, Maryland (33-4) has risen to stand among the nation’s elite. The 33 wins is the most for any Maryland basketball team — men or women.

“They have the heart of a lion,” Frese said. “They believe in each other ... I’m really proud of them. All season long this team has played with a chip on their shoulder. They’ve got a lot of believers tonight after the performance they put on.”

The Terps dominated inside as they have all season. Maryland, which led the nation with an average rebounding margin of more than 12, beat North Carolina on the glass 41-31. The young post players who made that happen — sophomores Crystal Langhorne and Laura Harper — also asserted their strong scoring presence.

Harper had a career-high 24 points and Langhorne scored 23 for the Terps, who had beaten ACC rival North Carolina 98-95 in overtime in the regular season. Carolina avenged that with a 91-80 in the ACC tournament, but the stakes were much higher in this rubber match.

The Terps will play Duke in the title game Tuesday night. Duke beat LSU Duke 64-45 in the second semifinal.

The Terps will play ACC rival Duke for the title.

Maryland ran its halfcourt came to near perfection, getting the ball into Langhorne or Harper for basket after basket.

“That’s what was working,” Frese said. “It was, ’Who could stop who?’ We wanted to turn them into a jump-shooting team.”

Erlana Larkins led the Tar Heels with 28 points and 10 rebounds. Latta was banged up, knocked down and carried off the court at one point after tweaking her knee while coming down with a pass on the baseline.

FILIP BONDY ON WOMEN'S BASKETBALL Terps dynasty in making Frese built young squad capable of winning in ’07, ’08

She lay in obvious pain for several minutes and was carried of the floor to a standing ovation, then trotted back on the floor 2 minutes later. But she never quite got on track, finishing with 14 points, four assists and made just one of 10 3-pointers.

“It affected me a lot and I tried not to think about it,” Latta said. “I tried to do what I could to help the team and not let it affect me. Erlana told me ‘We need you.”’

And indeed they did — but it still wasn’t enough.

WOMEN’S NCAA TOURNAMENT RESULTS Title game Maryland 78, Duke 75 Final Four games Duke 64, LSU 45 Maryland 81, North Carolina 70

“I didn’t feel like we were in a rhythm after Ivory got hurt,” Carolina coach Sylvia Hatchell said. “She’s our spark. We didn’t seem to have any energy.”

Maryland was making its first Final Four appearance since 1989 but had the swagger of a team that’s been here before. The Terps led by just two at the half, then began to methodically add to the lead.

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