ESPN Women's Basketball

Maryland had two games this weekend … but it probably seems more like about six to the Terrapins. That's how hard-fought they were. The Terps will wake up sore on Monday. However, their record didn't get bruised.

It has been a tightrope walk the No. 4 Terps should be proud of as they now have the week to prepare for this year's marquee ACC showdown: Maryland vs. North Carolina in Chapel Hill on Saturday.

"Phew!" would be the word for the weekend for the Terps and their fans. The team was pushed twice, and Maryland had plenty of opportunities to lose.

Playing the physical, relentless Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets through two overtimes Sunday likely didn't feel much better than being stung repeatedly by a swarm of the real things. This came after Friday's escape from Virginia, where the Terps were in a close game until just about three minutes left, when they took over.

Yet Maryland will head into its matchup with the Tar Heels at 22-1 overall, 6-0 in the ACC.

Let's go back to the start of the past week, when Maryland was host to Duke on Monday. The Terps had not defeated the Blue Devils at home since 1998, and with 15,000-plus on hand at the Comcast Center, Maryland was more than ready to end that streak.

What was a tie score with six minutes left turned into a 15-point Maryland win. The Terps then had until Friday to prepare for Virginia, which had won seven in a row coming into that game.

Maryland and Virginia had some amazing games back in the late 1980s and early 1990s, none better than a triple-overtime final in the ACC tournament in 1993. The Cavaliers were victorious in that game -- as was the case in the series most of the time from 1990 to 2003. UVa went 27-4 against Maryland during that stretch. But since 2004, the Terps are 7-2 against the Cavs.

What Friday's game at UVa felt like, though, was one of those barn burners the schools played in Dawn Staley's senior season of 1992. The Terps won the matchup in Charlottesville that year, 67-65, then Virginia avenged that about a month later, 75-74. That latter game had Cole Field House so packed that people were sitting in the aisles and many others had been turned away at the entrances.

The Cavs and Terps don't play at U-Hall and Cole anymore, but on Friday, longtime fans had to feel as if they'd gone back in time -- at least for much of the game.

Then the reality that Maryland is one of the superpowers in today's game came through. Even without pregnant coach Brenda Frese -- she's not traveling now, not even for the short trip to Charlottesvile -- the Terps took over down the stretch.

Freshman Marah Strickland and junior Kristi Toliver made consecutive 3-pointers that served to deflate the Cavs as if they were a balloon meeting a thumbtack. Bam -- and all of a sudden, it was a 12-point Maryland victory. The Blue Devils could empathize.

So Sunday, the Terps were back home, facing a Georgia Tech team that upset Maryland last season in Atlanta. The Yellow Jackets were 16-2 and 3-1 entering the game. And because they know what it's like to beat Maryland, they were not intimidated in the least.

The Terps could have lost this one all kinds of ways -- but the most peril they were in came at the end of the first overtime. Georgia Tech had made it to the extra period on Janie Mitchell's 3-pointer with 10 seconds remaining.

Then, with two seconds left in the first OT, Jacqua Williams went to the line for a one-and-one. But she missed, and the Terps had one more life. This was obviously good … but also a little bad for Frese. She joked later that she rather desperately had to use the restroom -- pregnant women everywhere can empathize -- but the game just kept going.

It was worth the discomfort, though, as the Terps finally swatted away the Jackets in the second OT and triumphed 99-95.

The individual numbers when it was over were rather dizzying. Crystal Langhorne had 31 points and 15 rebounds, having also put up a double-double on the Cavs (20 and 16) on Friday. Fellow senior Laura Harper, who'd had a tough game against UVa with just four points, hit the Jackets for 24 points and a career-high 20 rebounds.

Marissa Coleman, who'd had 30 points against Duke and 13 vs. UVa, had 24 points and six assists against Georgia Tech. Toliver had six points and nine assists against the Jackets.

Georgia Tech, led by Alex Montgomery's 26 points, did pretty much everything you could do except actually win the game.

While the Jackets lament their lost opportunity, Maryland knows it showed a lot by surviving.

The Terps had too many turnovers (26), almost didn't capitalize on an enormous advantage at the line (36-of-44 to Tech's 6-of-12), got only two points from their bench and at times looked worn out. Probably because they were tired.

Yet they got a few breaks they needed and made enough big plays to hold off the upset.

Nobody ever knows for sure whether January games will "mean" something more than just as a W or L as the season goes on. But these past two for Maryland -- three, really, when you count Duke -- might be very important to the Terps in the long run. Because of what they proved to themselves.

Mechelle Voepel of The Kansas City Star is a regular contributor to ESPN.com. She can be reached at mvoepel123@yahoo.com.