Filip Bondy

BOSTON - Maryland didn't just win a national basketball championship on Tuesday with its 78-75 overtime victory over Duke. The nerveless, absurdly young Terps won the right to become a dynasty over the next three years.

There are no guarantees, of course. There may be injuries, dissension, a coaching migration, a recruitment scandal, all those problems that subvert sure-thing college programs. But at the moment, Maryland was not only the women's team to beat this April, it is the school to watch in 2007, 2008 and 2009.

"This team is so deadly at every position, nobody can stop us," declared guard Shay Doron, the team's only upperclassman.

The Terps, a No. 2 seed at this tournament, started two freshmen, two sophomores, one junior in the NCAA title game. They played poorly, stupidly, for the first half and fell behind by 13 points. "The worst 20 minutes I've ever seen," said their coach, Brenda Frese. But they kept pushing the ball, kept pestering the flustered Blue Devils into bad shots and mistakes.

Maryland (34-4) was 6-0 in overtime games this season, just another indication the Terps don't seem to worry about a thing. Maryland is deep and feeds off the pace set by a backcourt combination of Doron and Kristi Tolliver. They are the ones who make life most miserable for opponents with their sheer, reckless will.

"I've seen it too many times," said Gail Goestenkors, the Duke coach. "When the pressure's really on, they come through. I just feel utter disappointment for my players. It's killing me right now."

It was Doron who scolded and prodded Maryland Tuesday night when it looked utterly beaten, down double digits in the second half. Doron made a steal, hit the layup, screamed to the heavens for her teammates to awaken.

They did, too, slowly wearing down the Blue Devils with pace and persistence, going right to left on your TV screen in that second half. Suddenly, the Terps couldn't miss those mid-range jumpers, couldn't stop pulling down defensive rebounds at the other end. Toliver buried a three-point shot from the right side to tie the game in regulation, like it was a practice free throw.

"As soon as it left my hands, I knew it was going in," Toliver said.

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

Doron and Toliver arrived here by very different routes. Toliver is a local kid from Virginia, the daughter of George Toliver, an NBA ref. Doron is a New York kid by way of Israel. After she finished up at Christ the King High three years ago, Doron had a choice: Harvard or Maryland, the nation's top-ranked academic university or the school where Brenda Frese had moved from Minnesota in 2002 to build an ambitious program.

Doron liked Frese better than the Ivy diploma. When she broke the news to Frese, Doron heard screams of joy at the other end of the phone, which is exactly what she expected. Doron had found her kindred sister in unabated passion.

So here she was Tuesday night, a criminal justice major with a 3.7 grade point average at College Park, and Doron was playing for a title with one of the youngest teams around. At first, it looked so hopeless. Toliver, was playing like a freshman, making terrible mistakes and launching hopeless shots. Toliver was 1-for-9, and just kept shooting.

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"In high school, she shot the ball, she wasn't a true ballhandler," Doron said, diplomatically, of Toliver. "We took her under our wings, made her at home."

Toliver soon demonstrated her comfort level in the second half.  She was flying next to Doron, never flinching, never losing confidence.

"I have a kind of shooter's mentality," said Toliver. "If I trip when I'm on a behind-the-back dribble, if I make a mistake, I can't get caught up in it."

It was Doron's two free throws with 6:15 left in the second half that finally tied the game at 58, capping the comeback. Soon after, she was sent spinning to the court in a collision with Mistie Williams. She rested her stinging elbow for a few minutes. "I lost feeling in my hand for a few seconds," Doron said. She became a cheerleader for a couple minutes, then begged her way back into the game. She hit some important free throws down the stretch, a scoop layup in overtime.

Duke just plain ran out of steam, couldn't match the late-game energy from these whippersnappers. Maryland had pulled this off, and now five starters should be back next season looking for more.

They are a dynasty-in-waiting, but the Terps still may not want to spot an opponent 13 points, next time around.