Preview: No. 14 Maryland women’s basketball opens its season against Harvard

Coach Brenda Frese wants her team to “set the tone” Monday when No. 14 Maryland women’s basketball opens its season against Harvard.

The new iteration of the Terps is without first round WNBA draft picks Diamond Miller and Abby Meyers. To supplement the key losses, Maryland brought in the No. 11-ranked freshman class, according to ESPN, and N.C. State transfer Jakia Brown-Turner. 

Brown-Turner, an Oxon Hill native and a former McDonald’s All-American, is expected to replace some of Miller and Meyer’s scoring from last year. The graduate student scored 10 and 15 points respectively in the team’s two preseason exhibition games.

Five-star guard Riley Nelson headlines the freshman class. The Clarksburg native was named the Maryland Gatorade Player of the Year in her junior and senior years. She scored 23 points in the exhibition game against California (PA).

The Terps also return graduate students Faith Masonius, Lavender Briggs and Brinae Alexander, the latter of whom was the team’s best three-point shooter last year at 43.9 percent. Masonius offers experience in Frese’s system as the program’s longest-tenured player. 

Junior guard Shyanne Sellers looks to build off a breakout sophomore year in which she earned All-Big Ten First Team honors and played for Team USA U21 3×3 over the summer. 

“We want to set the tone with everything that we’ve been working on in these 30 practices and try to see what our identity is going to be [and] who we’re going to become this season,” Frese said. 

The Crimson enter the Xfinity Center after falling in the Ivy League championship game last season to Princeton. Harvard’s season then ended in the Great 8 of the Women’s NIT to Columbia. Maryland is 2-0 all-time against Harvard with its last win coming in the first round of the 2007 NCAA tournament.

“A lot of respect for Harvard, who had a deep run last year and is really well coached,” Frese said. “Really talented team that brings back a lot of their players from last year so [it’ll] be a great test for us.”

Guards Harmoni Turner and Lola Mullaney will rank at the top of Maryland’s defensive focuses. 

Turner was the Crimson’s leading scorer last year in her sophomore campaign, averaging 16.3 points per game. She also added 6.2 rebounds and 4.5 assists per game.

Mullaney, senior captain and three-year starter for the Crimson, averaged 14.3 points per game last year on 43.1% shooting. She has earned All-Ivy League Second Team honors for the past two seasons and is 16th on Harvard’s all-time scoring list. 

“They’ve got a lot of weapons on the offensive end that can score the basketball, they get up and down in transition,” Frese said. “And then they guard really hard, they’re going to get out and make you have to work on the offensive end.”

Tipoff from Xfinity Center is set for 7 p.m. Monday.