Maryland women’s basketball (15-10, 7-7 Big Ten) ends its two-game homestand Wednesday night against Rutgers (8-20, 2-13 Big Ten), the conference’s worst team.
Every game matters for the Terps, whose NCAA Tournament hopes hang in the balance after a slow start to the season. Many current bracket projections have Maryland as one of the last four teams in, likely to play in one of the First Four games. The Terps have four regular season games left — including a pair of ranked road matchups — and the Big Ten Tournament to make up some ground.
“I’m hopeful that [our difficult schedule] will continue to help us here in late February and March,” coach Brenda Frese said.
Maryland survived Rutgers’ late comeback attempt in early February to earn a 67-59 win in Piscataway, snapping the Terps’ four-game losing skid they entered the game with. Maryland followed that victory with two more to enter Wednesday’s rematch on a three-game winning streak.
Jakia Brown-Turner has stepped up immensely for the Terps since their Jan. 9 loss to Michigan State. The graduate student has scored double-digit points in all 10 games, proving why Frese looked to add her from the portal. Brown-Turner is averaging 19.7 points per game in the stretch.
“I’m happy Jakia is picking up her confidence right where we need her to be,” Shyanne Sellers said. “She’s been huge for us these last few games, finding her groove and getting back into shape.”
Brown-Turner has become Maryland’s primary offensive catalyst alongside Sellers over the last six weeks. The duo is averaging a combined 29.3 points and nearly 12 rebounds per game on the season, with a lot of Brown-Turner’s production coming since the calendar turned to 2024.
Brown-Turner’s second-half surge has been instrumental in keeping the Terps’ NCAA Tournament hopes alive. She’s seen her minutes increase significantly over the second half of the season to pair along with her surge. All six of Brown-Turner’s highest minutes in a game this season have come since Jan. 17.
The wing’s previous career high in points before this season was a 25-point outing with NC State against North Carolina in 2021. She tied that career best earlier this season before smashing it with a 32-point Senior Day performance on Sunday.
Along with Brown-Turner’s emergence, Maryland has cleaned up most of its weak spots — its poor third quarters, weak offensive production, blown second-half leads and inability to dominate the glass.
“When we’re not turning the ball over, good things are in store for us,” Frese said. “We still have to cut that down … that’s our last area we’ve got to really fine tune.”
Maryland has turned the ball over at least 10 times in every game this season and averages 15.5 turnovers a game, still struggling to perfect taking care of the ball. But the Terps have found other ways to score and win games even with sloppy ball handling.
Frese’s team has been playing their best basketball of late. Maryland fell in close games to ranked conference foes Ohio State, Indiana and Iowa but rebounded well, starting with its last matchup against Rutgers Feb. 6.
“We just hit a really rocky start to the beginning of our season but I think this group is fighting and finding its course, it’s fun to be trending the right way at the right time,” Sellers said.
