No. 14 Maryland women’s basketball seeks new momentum against Illinois

Photo courtesy of Maryland Athletics

No. 14 Maryland women’s basketball (17-4, 7-3 Big Ten) looks to gain new momentum after its 92-83 win at Penn State on Wednesday, as they return home to take on Illinois (16-5, 6-4 Big Ten).

Sunday marks two big events for Maryland. On Sunday, the Terps will honor their graduating seniors and have the chance to produce a milestone victory for head coach Brenda Frese.

Frese currently sits at 599 career victories as a Maryland head coach, and a win against the Fighting Illini would put her at 600 wins. If Maryland secures a victory, Frese would further cement her legacy as the winningest coach in Maryland basketball history. 

Prior to the Terps’ matchup against the Nittany Lions, Maryland was reeling from injuries to two of its top scorers — Bri McDaniel and Shyanne Sellers. 

While McDaniel is out for the season with an ACL tear, Sellers returned to action against Penn State on a minutes restriction.

“We wanted to be smart with her minutes as we brought her back,” Frese said. “I thought she did a really good job in the amount of time.” 

With Sellers on a minutes restriction, fellow guard Sarah Te-Biasu scored a season-high 20 points, knocking down four 3-point shots on six attempts to lead the Terps against Penn State.

In addition to Te-Biasu’s contributions, guard Saylor Poffenbarger recently added 13 points. The redshirt junior has featured three consecutive games with double-digit points after five straight games without reaching the 10-point margin.

“That’s been a neat thing to see Sarah and Saylor seeing that confidence for this team,” Frese said. “That was huge for the locker room.” 

Guard Kaylene Smikle — the Terps’ leading score — continued her consistency against the Nittany Lions, finishing with 17 points. The junior averages 17.4 points per game, matching that number against Penn State while hitting four shots late in the fourth quarter to help Maryland close the game. 

While guard play has been a strength for Maryland, the Terps have struggled to contain the inside presence of opposing bigs. No.1 UCLA and Penn State dominated the paint in the past two games. UCLA center Lauren Betts scored 33 points on 14 of 15 shooting, while Penn State’s Gracie Merkle scored 24 points on 11 of 13 shooting. 

Illinois poses a different challenge for Maryland, as its scoring primarily comes from its guards. Four of Illinois’ top five scorers are all guards, and they all average over 10 points per game.

Fifth-year guard Genesis Bryant not only leads Illinois’ guards in points but also sets up plays for her teammates as well. Bryant leads the team in assists, averaging 3.5 per game — the highest mark of her collegiate career. 

Equally versatile for Illinois is guard Adalia McKenzie. The senior has consistently produced for the Fighting Illini the past two seasons, averaging at least 11 points per game over her past two seasons, and is on track to do so again. But similar to Bryant, McKenzie moves the ball well, averaging just under three assists per game.

While the program has seen recent success, this was not always true. 

Before hiring head coach Shauna Green after the 2021-2022 season, the Fighting Illini experienced nine straight losing seasons. 

Since Green took over the job, Illinois has improved tremendously, going 22-10 (11-7 B1G Ten) in 2022-2023 and 19-15 (8-10 B1G Ten) in 2023-2024. So far this season, the team is 16-5 overall and 6-4 in conference play. 

While Illinois’s offense scores eight points less per game than Maryland’s, the Illinois defense gives up just 59.7 points per game, the sixth-best mark in the Big Ten. 

The Terps will seek Frese’s 600th career win on Sunday at the Xfinity Center. Tip-off is set for 1 p.m.