Preview: No. 16 Maryland women’s basketball travels to Oregon amid recent struggles

Photo courtesy of University of Maryland Athletics

No. 16 Maryland women’s basketball (17-5, 7-4 Big Ten) will travel to Eugene, Ore., on Thursday for an important conference matchup against the Ducks (16-6, 7-4).

Both teams currently sit in a four-way tie for fifth place in the conference.

Maryland cruised through its opening 17 games, going 16-1, with its lone loss coming against then-No. 4 USC. But for the first time this season, the Terps have hit a skid, dropping four of their past five contests.

“Nobody on our team likes to lose,” forward Allie Kubek said. “We are a really competitive team, and that’s what makes us so special.” 

The Ducks have excelled at home this season, boasting an impressive 13-1 record at Matthew Knight Arena. 

But the Terps have been solid on the road this season, sporting a 6-1 record where the only loss came to then-No.12 Ohio State.

Some of the Terps’ recent woes have come from injuries to key players. Junior guard Bri McDaniel is out for the remainder of the season with a torn ACL, and senior guard Shyanne Sellers missed two games with a knee injury.

Sellers’ status will be important for the Terps, as they lost both games without her in the lineup. In Maryland’s last game against Illinois, Sellers was shaken up early in the third quarter and limped to the locker room. She returned to the game minutes later and appeared to be fine. 

Head coach Kelly Graves revamped the Ducks’ program in his 11 years at the helm. Before taking over Oregon, it had just one winning record in its seven prior seasons. But Graves has flipped the program into a powerhouse, guiding the Ducks to eight straight winning seasons, including two runs to the Elite Eight and one to the Final Four.

But last season was a significant dropoff from those teams. The Ducks went just 11-21, marking Graves’ second-worst winning percentage in his 27 years of collegiate coaching.

However, the Ducks have adjusted well to Big Ten play this season, picking up a top-25 win over Michigan State. After dropping its first two conference games, Oregon has rattled off seven wins in its past nine contests.

“They have won in different ways in every game,” head coach Brenda Frese said. “You see the difference where they go to Michigan State and have a significant win, and then they go to Michigan and have a blowout loss. You never know what you are going to see.”

For Oregon, the guard duo of Peyton Scott and Deja Kelly lead a very balanced scoring attack. 

Last year, Scott’s season was cut to just one game because of a season-ending knee injury. But the graduate student has played well this season, averaging 10.3 points on 41% field-goal shooting.

In her first year after transferring from North Carolina, Kelly is having her best all-around season. She is second on the team in points with 10.1, rebounds with 4.5 and steals with 1.4 while facilitating a team-high 3.5 assists.

Despite the Ducks not getting much offensive production from their frontcourt, they possess elite size that disrupts teams on the defensive end.

Phillipina Kyei — a 6-foot-8 center — is scoring 7.2 points and gathering 6.4 rebounds, a notch below last year’s double-double averages. But her presence in the paint has remained, leading to one block a game.

Her counterpart — Amina Muhammad — is in her first season with Oregon after transferring from Texas. She looked the part during nonconference play, averaging 10 points per game. However, she has struggled in Big Ten games, scoring roughly five points per contest.

The Ducks have also gotten production off the bench from guard Nani Falatea. The redshirt junior is shooting just under 40% from three — an area Maryland struggled with against Illinois.

But Oregon’s defense has been vital to its success, holding opponents to 59.8 points. The Ducks also don’t turn the ball over often, just 13.7 times a game — fourth fewest in the Big Ten.

Thursday’s matchup will mark the third meeting between these two squads and the first in Big Ten play. Oregon won the prior two contests, including a 2017 Sweet 16 matchup.