Bri McDaniel went down midway through the third quarter for Maryland women’s basketball. The team responded in a big way, with fifth year senior Faith Masonius taking over. Masonius scored six straight pointers herself, her pretty reverse layup under the basket giving the Terps a 52-51 lead, their first lead since the first quarter.
Sellers then forced a steal who passed the ball to Jakia Brown-Turner pulling ahead in transition. Brown-Turner scored the layup on the fast break to give Maryland a 54-51 lead with 2:18 left in the third quarter.
Maryland (6-3) kept its foot on the gas the rest of the game, handing George Mason (7-1) its first loss of the season with a 86-77 win.
“I thought it was a terrific response after halftime,” coach Brenda Frese said. “… But we can’t wait 20 minutes [into the game] from the tip to be ready to play.”
After the teams entered the first media timeout tied at 10-10, George Mason took over with a stifling defense that forced turnovers and bad shots. Following that timeout, the Patriots heated up from beyond the arc hitting three of their next five three-pointers as part of a 15-4 run to close out the first quarter with a 21-14 lead.
Both teams got into a rut midway through the second quarter unable to connect on a field goal for nearly four and half minutes.
Maryland’s defense had trouble covering Patriots guard Taylor Jameson who shot 4-6 from beyond the arc in the first half to light Maryland up for 14 points. Her latest three-pointer forced coach Brenda Frese to take a timeout. Jameson only connected on six three-pointers entering today’s game but only scored two points in the second half.
Maryland missed ten layups and turned the ball over 12 times in the first half. Those turnovers were costly as the Patriots turned those extra possessions into nine points, the margin at halftime. Maryland trailed George Mason 42-33 at the intermission as the Patriots got 23 points from its bench in the first half.
“George Mason did a good job in the first half making us work the entire shot clock and then we are going down taking shots within 10 seconds of ours,” Sellers said. “… We did a much better job of that in the second half.”
Wing Brinae Alexander got Maryland started out of halftime hitting a much needed three-pointer. Then on the Terps next possession McDaniel got to the basket converting the layup and drawing the foul. McDaniel calmly sank the free throw, shrinking the Patriots’ lead all the way down to three points very early in the third quarter.
Shortly thereafter, Allie Kubek scored her first basket of the game, a layup which cut the lead down all the way to one early in the third quarter.
The Patriots increased their lead again with an 8-1 run before an Alexander three-pointer and a tough Masonius layup cut the lead to three. Masonius knocked down two free throws to cut Maryland’s deficit to 51-50 and drew an offensive foul.
Masonius finished the afternoon with 15 points, five rebounds and three assists.
“I thought she sparked that and got on the glass and was fearless getting to the rim,” Frese said. “We needed that kind of scoring and rebounding.”
Maryland increased its lead with Sellers beating the third quarter buzzer with a layup and kept the Xfinity Center crowd buzzing. In total, the Terps outscored the Patriots 26-12 in the third quarter.
Maryland took better care of the basketball in the second half, only turning the ball over five times while forcing 11. Sellers secured a double-double with 28 points and 13 rebounds.
As part of her double-double, Sellers converted the tough-and-one layup getting knocked down to the court that gave Maryland a double-digit lead. The Patriots were called for a technical foul and Sellers knocked down 2-3 free throws giving Maryland a 12-point lead with under five minutes to go.
Alexander’s jumper with just under a minute to go helped ice Maryland’s fourth straight win.
