Key takeaways from No. 19 Maryland women’s basketball’s final road game

Photo courtesy of Maryland Athletics

Entering its contest against Indiana, No. 19 Maryland women’s basketball had lost four straight against the Hoosiers. 

But on Thursday, Maryland played a strong fourth quarter to silence the crowd on Indiana’s senior night. The Terps won 74-60, putting them at 10-1 on the road this season and 8-1 on the road in conference play. 

No Poffenbarger, no problem

After scoring 16 points, junior Saylor Poffenbarger went down with an injury in the third quarter against Northwestern on Feb. 20. With Maryland down two of its top four scorers, others stepped up. 

Graduate guard Sarah Te-Biasu played 38 minutes, scoring eight points and dishing out a team-high six assists as she got everybody involved. 

Senior Allie Kubek started in Poffenbarger’s place, scoring six points and providing a physical presence inside en route to a team-high 11 rebounds. 

Off the bench, graduate student Mir McLean, sophomore Emily Fisher, and senior Amari DeBerry played crucial minutes for the Terps. While they only combined for eight points, they were a combined  +40 when they were on the court. 

“We got close to 40 minutes off the bench, and to be able to extend your depth like that, you get that rest within the team,” head coach Brenda Frese said. “What I loved was every single player contributed with scoring.” 

The defense steps up

While Maryland’s defense has struggled since losing Bri McDaniel to a season-ending injury over a month ago, the Terps held Indiana to 60 points – the lowest they’ve allowed in any Big Ten game this season. 

Maryland started by holding Indiana to its lowest-scoring first half of the season, allowing just 20 points – and only six in the second quarter – while finishing on a 14-2 run. 

The defensive intensity was evident when Fisher looked angry after a lack of communication, which led directly to an easy Hoosiers bucket early in the fourth quarter. 

“Holding them to 60 points was big”, Frese said. “We had a ton of deflections, a lot of stops that really helped us … [and] that’s (what) you’ve got to be able to have this time of year.”

Sellers takes over

After scoring only 4 points in the first three quarters, senior guard Shyanne Sellers responded with a stellar fourth quarter. She scored 21 of Maryland’s 28 final points, including the last seven to secure Maryland’s win. 

Since scoring 0 points against Oregon, Sellers has scored 15 or more points in four of the last five games, including two 20-point performances. 

“[The] first three quarters weren’t really going my way. [I] felt like I was letting my team down with some of the shots I was taking,” Sellers said. “I felt like most of them were good shots … so thankfully, they started falling in the fourth quarter.”