No. 17 Maryland women’s basketball routed by No. 1 South Carolina, 81-56

Late in the third quarter, South Carolina started to pull away.

Off a missed shot, the ball came off the rim as a pair of long arms stretched above the rest and yanked it down. Junior center Kamilla Cardoso hoisted it back up over the heads of the Maryland defense and laid in the basket, earning a roar from the South Carolina fans. 

The basket capped off a 10-1 run, as South Carolina’s lead grew to 16 and the Gamecocks coasted the rest of the way.

No. 1 South Carolina routed No. 17 Maryland, 81-59, Friday, behind the performances of Aliyah Boston and Cardoso, who shot a combined 12-14 from the field with 29 of the Gamecocks’ points.

Matching up against South Carolina’s size proved to be a difficult task for Maryland throughout the game as many expected it would be. The Terps struggled on the boards, as South Carolina out-rebounded them by 23. On the defensive end, South Carolina blocked seven shots compared to Maryland’s zero. On the offensive end, South Carolina dominated the Terps in the paint, where the Gamecocks scored 40 of their 81 points.

“It’s amazing, their size,” coach Brenda Frese said. “They have seven post players that come off the bench … I thought our group did a really nice job though.”

Senior guard Abby Meyers brought the energy early for the Terps, scoring 14 of the team’s first 17 points, but was held to only 5 points in the second half. The Princeton transfer saw a lot of the ball throughout the game with the absence of star guard Diamond Miller, who missed the contest with a knee injury suffered in the George Mason win on Monday.

“Credit to South Carolina, the defense was amazing,” Meyers said. “I think I definitely dried up a little bit, so it’s a personal thing I’ve got to work on.”

Overall however, the offense struggled to shoot the ball, as Maryland shot 30% from both the field and three. Meyers was the only Terp to break double-digits with her 21 points on 9/23 shooting.

South Carolina came out red hot in the third quarter, nearly scoring as much as they did in the first half (32) in the quarter alone, outscoring Maryland 30-17. Senior guard Zia Cooke and Cardoso led South Carolina’s scoring in the quarter with a combined 19 points. 

Late in the 3rd quarter, tempers flared when freshman guard Bri McDaniel had to be separated from South Carolina players following a foul. McDaniel was awarded a technical foul in addition to South Carolina’s Kierra Fletcher and Cardoso. 

“You usually don’t like to see technicals, but in this instance I’ve had to take it,” Frese said. “To have two freshmen that really were not ready to back down, haven’t seen that in a long time.”

Following the incident, the game started to turn into a blowout quickly, as South Carolina finished the quarter on a 14-4 run to take a commanding 62-43 lead over the Terps.

“The third quarter got away from us, obviously, because of the depth that they had, the size, the experience,” Frese said. “We’ll get there.”

South Carolina continued to trouble the Terps through the 4th quarter, outscoring them 19-13 despite delving deep into the bench to give players who don’t play as often some experience.

To add to insult to injury, sophomore guard Shyanne Sellers had to be helped off the court late in the fourth quarter with a lower left leg injury. Sellers was unable to put any weight on the leg as she headed to the locker room, but was seen walking around on the court after the game with a slight limp. 

A possible Sellers injury would add to the Terps’ injured list, as Miller is currently day-to-day according to Frese.

The top-ranked Gamecocks were just too much to handle for an inexperienced, depleted Maryland team in its home opener.

Despite the loss, Frese had a positive outlook on the Terps performance and how the team looks moving forward.

“This group didn’t flinch,” Frese said. “They didn’t hang their heads, they didn’t feel sorry for themselves, they just went to the next possession. As long as we continue to play like that … I think things will fall into place — just have to be a little more patient.”

The Terps will look to bounce back on Sunday when they take on Fordham in College Park.