RECAP: No. 15 Maryland women’s basketball dominates Purdue Fort Wayne, 88-51

The Terps were rolling four minutes into the third, smothering the Mastodons on the defensive end while being near-unable to miss on offensive end. 

With the lead now up to 20, Brinae Alexander looked to add onto that with another straight-on three of her own. She rose up and the ball struck nothing but net as Purdue Fort Wayne was forced to call timeout, now down 54-31. 

The Mastodons never recovered from this point on, being routed 88-51 by No. 15 Maryland women’s basketball due to a lights out shooting performance from the Terps.

Despite this, Maryland began the game cold shooting the ball inside the arc, missing many shots around the rim. The Terps were 4-13 from the field at one point in the first quarter. 

However, the Terps made up for their shooting woes with their defense, allowing just four made field goals during the extent of the quarter. That, combined with star senior guard Abby Meyers beginning to find her shot towards the end of the quarter, ultimately allowed the Terps to take a comfortable 20-13 lead heading into the second. 

Meyers was efficient from the field, which has been a consistent trend this season. When Meyers has shot the three well it has uplifted the offensive play of the Terps significantly, and that didn’t change throughout the second quarter.

Heading into half, Meyers hit 50% of her shots on her way to a team-high 12 points. 

Despite their overall shooting, the Terps began the game significantly better from behind the arc, finishing the half a prolific 5-8 from three. Using its outside shooting, Maryland pulled away 39-23 at the end of quarter two. 

Offensively, Maryland played exactly how coach Brenda Frese has wished throughout the season — in transition. The Terps scored 15 points in the fastbreak, compared to Mastodon’s zero in the half.

“We like to play a fast paced game and get down in transition,” senior guard Diamond Miller said. “I think we just followed our game plan and did what we had to do on the offensive side.”

To further assert their dominance, the Terps’ defense smothered the Mastodons, holding them to 24% shooting from the field and only seven made field goals throughout the half.

Entering the third quarter, it was Miller who got it going, starting the quarter with a quick eight points to bring her total to 15. Her and Meyers connected on multiple passes, feeding the other assists as the lead was stretched to nearly 30 before being pulled from the game.

From this point on, the Terps were never in any sort of danger, coasting to a 71-35 lead at the end of the third quarter that put them on cruise control in the fourth.

The Terps were a whopping 9-13 from three at this point following a buzzer-beating three by Alexander.

Throughout the fourth, it was more of the same for the Terps, now with the second team. Frese dipped into her bench, getting extra minutes for certain players.

“[Bri’s] really starting to put some productive practices together for us, so it’s really great to see her rounding into form,” Frese said. “She drew four fouls today, I thought she was really aggressive on both ends of the floor.”

Sophomore guard Shyanne Sellers stayed on the court for much of the time with the second team and showed her worth as the first option. Sellers finished with a team-high 18 points after a third and fourth quarter without Meyers and Miller on the court.

“Love where Shy is trending,” Frese said. “That’s what you want to see, that growth, that step you make as a sophomore.”

This total won her bragging rights over her older sister in the matchup, senior guard Shayla Sellers of Purdue Fort Wayne. Shyanne tripled her sister’s six points and led the Terps down the stretch in their convincing win. 

“It was really fun to play against my sister,” Shyanne said. “She said I was a flopper … We had a little banter like I told you guys it was going to happen.” 

Maryland’s scoring came easy as a result of how the Terps shared the ball throughout the game, finishing with 20 assists. Miller, Meyers, Sellers and Alexander all finished in double figures, combining for 62 of the team’s 88 points. 

“I love that two to one assist to turnover ratio,” Frese said. “We’re just making the right play and the right read. When you make those plays, that’s why you see a game where everyone scores and four players in double figures.” 

As a team, the Terps shot 56% percent from the three, a step down from where they were in the third quarter but an incredibly efficient performance nonetheless.

One bright spot for the Mastodons was the play of junior guard Amellia Bromenschenkel, who put up 25 points and 10 rebounds in the blowout loss.

“She was really able to expose from a lot of different areas, but I also look at the stats that [say] it took her 21 shots to get those 25 points,” Frese said.

The Terps now look ahead to their home game against Minnesota on Dec. 30th.