Maryland women’s basketball squeaks by Green Bay in Cancun Challenge, 68-59

Shyanne Sellers crossed the ball between her legs on the right wing and drove with her left hand towards the basket. After trailing the entire game, she decided to put the game in her own hands with minutes remaining in the third quarter.

Sellers drained a fadeaway in the left corner of the paint while initiating contact with her defender, drawing the foul and completing the three point play. The junior wasn’t done. She went back to her spot on the right wing the next possession, crossing the ball and connecting on a midrange jumper. 

Then Sellers did it again the following possession. The guard caught a pass from Jakia Brown-Turner, taking a few dribbles to her spot. Sellers set her feet and rose in the gold Maryland jerseys to score her seventh straight point. 

And Sellers made one more impactful play before the third-quarter buzzer sounded. She passed the ball across the court to Riley Nelson, and the freshman connected at nearly the same spot on the right wing to give the Terps their first lead of the day at the end of the frame. 

Maryland women’s basketball (3-3) used its third quarter run, spearheaded by Sellers, to defeat Green Bay (3-2), 68-59. Sellers finished the game with 23 points and nine rebounds to lead the Terps to victory.

“That’s what great players do, they want to step up and make plays for their team and she did a tremendous job with that,” coach Brenda Frese said. 

Nelson recorded a season-high 34 minutes and churned nine points in her playing time. She had played 23 minutes and scored seven points the day before against No. 23 Washington State, both previous highs. 

While Sellers and Nelson played pivotal roles in Maryland’s finish, the Terps’ start wasn’t smooth. They struggled out the gate to make on shots, shooting just 20 percent from the field in the first quarter. Maryland missed three different shots on its second possession of the game as Brinae Alexander and Brown-Turner couldn’t connect from close range after a missed Sellers three-pointer.

Maryland finally got on the board three minutes into the frame after a driving layup by Bri McDaniel. The sophomore guard scored four of Maryland’s 11 first-quarter points, and finished with a career high 19 points. 

The Terps trailed by as much as eight in the opening quarter but cut their deficit to three in the final seconds before Natalie Anderson nailed a three pointer ahead of the buzzer to push the Phoenix’ lead to six. 

A far better shooting performance in the second quarter saw Maryland trim its deficit to just one by halftime. It shot 6-13 from the field and was six of eight from the foul line. But the Terps’ failure to connect from three-point range limited their offensive capabilities. 

Maryland’s rebounded dominance was a key reason it kept its deficit low while its offense slugged. The Terps out-rebounded the Phoenix by 14 at the break, and finished with a season high 57 rebounds. Yet Maryland could only muster five less second chance points than the Phoenix despite dominating with 10 more offensive boards.

“We know that we weren’t really doing the rebounding so we made sure that we took an emphasis on that,” McDaniel said.

The Terps pressured the Phoenix with a 2-3 defense in the third quarter to out-score Green Bay for the first time all game and take their first lead. Alexander recorded the Terps’ first made three-pointer of the game in the frame, her only make of the day as she fouled out in just 10 minutes of action.

Maryland never trailed again after claiming a lead at the end of the fourth quarter. The Terps connected on 15 of 17 free throws to grow their advantage in the period, while the Phoenix’ offense continued to struggle against the zone defense as they connected on just 22.2 percent of their looks in the fourth quarter. 

“We wanted to change into the zone and see if that would slow them down a bit and I thought it was really successful,” Frese said. “… It was working for us and I thought they started settling for some shots.”

The win moved Maryland back to .500 on the season in its second of three games at the Cancun Challenge. It’ll look for a two-game win streak for the first time this year when it faces Massachusetts on Saturday.