Early in the second half of Maryland women’s basketball’s contest against Niagara, Bri McDaniel dished out a pretty assist. The sophomore guard sent the ball to Brinae Alexander in the corner with a backwards through the legs bounce pass. McDaniel blocked off the closest defender, and Alexander knocked down the wide open three-pointer.
Despite a slow offensive start to the season, Maryland (5-3) looked more like itself against Niagara (2-5), making the Purple Eagles look more like a D-II team than a team picked to finish first in the MAAC poll. Behind Alexander’s career night, the Terps routed Niagara, 114-44.
“We need her three-point shooting,” coach Brenda Frese said. “She’s our best three-point shooter, she opens things up.”
Maryland overwhelmed the Purple Eagles as everything seemed to go its way.
Lavender Briggs was ruled out before the game with a lower body injury. McDaniel started in her place and stepped in admirably, scoring 18 points on 6-for-8 shooting.
Maryland forced Niagara into turnovers as the Purple Eagles turned the ball over 10 times with 8 steals turning those turnovers into 13 points.
Frese wanted more production from Alexander and she delivered, shooting 11-13 from the field including 7-9 from beyond the arc. She scored 29 points, three assists and five steals. Alexander’s 29 points is a new career high.
“We just got her a lot more easier looks,” Frese said. “She’s not going to be a player that is going to pull off ball screens and create shots for herself, she needs the others.”
Niagara started the second quarter 0-5 from the field as Maryland went on a 28-0 run. The Terps built up a 45-11 lead midway through the second period.
Alexander recorded a new season-high —in the first half — with 17 points on perfect 7-7 shooting. Alexander’s hot start continued into the second half, extending her perfection from the field to 11 straight makes before missing a couple of three-pointers in the fourth quarter.
“I was feeling really good at shootaround and in warmups,” Alexander said. “I didn’t realize I was perfect from the floor until halftime.”
Maryland’s offense hummed with nearly everything falling while the defense made things difficult for the Purple Eagles. The Terps defense held Niagara to just 17 points in the first half.
Freshmen Hawa Doumbouya and Summer Bostock got into the game two minutes before halftime. Frese featured a lineup with all four scholarship freshmen paired with Emma Chardon.
The group did not score any points until Riley Nelson found Doumbouya near the basket right before the buzzer for a layup which led to a big eruption from the sparse crowd. The lineup of young players did not give up a basket to Niagara.
After playing 57 minutes against UMass, the freshmen played 63 minutes tonight.
Sellers did not contribute many points but distributed the ball well, recording 11 assists, including a no-look pass to Nelson who cut to the basket and converted the layup.
Maryland shot 67.2% from the field which is a new season high in shooting percentage. The Terps recorded a season high in three-point percentage as well at 58.8%.
“We were looking for each other, looking for that extra pass,” Nelson said. “That really helped us today.”
