Preview: No. 8 Maryland women’s basketball prepares for regular season finale against No. 16 Ohio State

In its regular season finale, No. 8 Maryland women’s basketball (23-5, 14-3 Big Ten) will travel to Columbus to take on No. 16 Ohio State (23-5, 12-5) in a game with massive seeding implications for the Big Ten Tournament.

For the Buckeyes, they are locked into the No. 4-seed in Minneapolis, as the only team that could tie them in the standings is No. 12 Michigan. Unfortunately for the Wolverines, Ohio State has defeated its rivals twice this season, giving it the tiebreaker.

However, Maryland still has seeding implications at stake on Friday. The Terps are currently tied with Iowa for the No. 2-seed in the Big Ten, and if the Terps win on Friday and No. 6 Iowa loses on the road to conference leader No. 2 Indiana, Maryland will hold the No. 2-seed in Minneapolis.

Additionally, this is another opportunity for Maryland to add a ranked win to its already loaded resume. Heading into Friday, the Terps already have six wins over ranked teams, including two on the road.

“This group likes to go in and silence the crowd and perform really well,” coach Brenda Frese said.

With a win over Ohio State in hostile territory, it is possible that Maryland could rise even higher in the rankings, potentially putting themselves in line for a No. 1-seed in the NCAA Tournament.

Ohio State had been slumping previously, but the Buckeyes got back on track the past two games, getting crucial road wins against Penn State and Michigan. In its 74-61 win in Ann Arbor, Ohio State was led by an unexpected player.

Redshirt junior guard Rikki Harris, a distributing guard who had been averaging 7.5 points per game before the Michigan contest, led the Buckeyes in scoring with a career-high 23 points. Harris also played incredible defense, halting the Michigan offense en route to seven steals, also a career-high.

Additionally, the Buckeyes, who are usually not a great shooting team (34% from three), shot over 50% from deep against the Wolverines. Senior guard Taylor Mikesell led the way from beyond the arc, shooting 4-6 from three.

When asked about what concerned her about the Buckeyes, senior guard Diamond Miller mentioned “their press and their shooting ability from three.”

Mikesell, along with senior guard Jacy Sheldon, who recently returned from injury, lead the Buckeyes on the offensive side of the ball. Sheldon, who has only played in six games this season, is averaging 14.2 points per game.

Sheldon also is a menace on the defensive side of the ball, albeit in a limited sample size, averaging a tick over five steals a game. As a team, the Buckeyes play a pressure style defense, hoping to turn teams over and get easy baskets on the other end.

However, the last meeting between these two teams exposed the weaknesses in the Ohio State defense. Maryland scored 90 points, winning by a stunning margin of 36 points, the Terps’ largest defeat of a Division One opponent this season.

Miller led the way in that early February matchup, scoring 29 points alongside 10 boards to lead the way for the Terps. Miller and the Buckeyes had some words for each other as well, leading to the star guard saying that she “showed [Ohio State] what real aggression was.”

Foul trouble played a role in that game, as freshman forward Cotie McMahon was forced to sit out nearly the entire second quarter in foul trouble. The freshman was placed primarily on Miller throughout the game, so it will be a storyline to follow if the Buckeyes’ third leading scorer can stay on the court.

“I think they’re still going to be extremely aggressive like they were the first time and probably even more aggressive just because they don’t want me to go off again,” Miller said. “So we’ll see.”

Tip-off is set for 6 p.m. on Friday at the Value City Arena in Columbus.