The Terps won a rollercoaster game.
Life in the Big Ten looks a lot different than it did last year. But No. 16 Maryland women’s basketball is making the most of it, sweeping its two-game West Coast road trip.
After taking down Oregon Thursday afternoon, the Terps beat Washington, 81-73, in Seattle Sunday afternoon.
The Terps were carried by Kaylene Smikle, as she set a career-high with 36 points and put on a masterful scoring performance, all while battling an illness. Elle Ladine led the Huskies with 23.
“When she’s sick, it’s amazing that [she] can put up 36 points,” Maryland head coach Brenda Frese said.
The game started off terribly for Maryland, as the Terps instantly found themselves in a double-digit hole.
The Huskies entered the matchup as the second-best 3-point shooting team in the conference, but Maryland seemed surprisingly unprepared, allowing guards Hannah Stines and Ladine open looks from deep. The guards cashed in and made Maryland pay, building Washington’s early lead as high as 15 points.
“I think we let them get a couple of shots off in the second quarter that we shouldn’t have,” Shyanne Sellers said.
Smikle and Sellers stopped it from getting out of hand, as they both attacked the rim and drew fouls. There might not be a duo in the country better at getting to the free-throw line.
Maryland ended the first quarter on a 6-0 run, but still trailed by eight points. Luckily for the Terps, their momentum carried directly into the second quarter.
On back-to-back possessions, Sarah Te-Bioasu drilled a three and Smikle got to the line and went 2 for 2, putting Maryland up a point. The Terps never looked back from there, building on their lead with exceptionally efficient offense.
“I thought it showed a lot about their character and their resiliency,” Frese said.
They had a perfect second quarter at the free-throw line, shot 75% from three and 50% from the field — which allowed them to extend their lead to eight points by halftime.
The Terps showed no signs of slowing down out of the break, as Smikle continued her masterful performance by going right at her defenders, drawing and-1s and hitting triples.
As the Terps extended their lead, Smikle broke the 30-point threshold before the third quarter concluded. Maryland’s lead reached 18 points and seemed secure at 14 heading into the game’s final quarter.
“Once I noticed in transition that they weren’t able to stop me going downhill, after timeouts my coaches kept telling me go downhill,” Smikle said. “I kept going and I wasn’t stopped.”
That security quickly evaporated, though, as Washington began another one of the game’s big runs, this time sparked by forward Dalayah Daniels.
She caused Maryland problems on both ends of the floor, rejecting shots at the rim on one end and attacking it on the other. Daniels spearheaded a 12-0 Washington run that brought it back into the game and cut Maryland’s advantage to single digits.
An and-1 for Smikle and a beautiful spin move from Saylor Poffenbarger halted the run, but the game remained close as the Terps struggled to break Washington’s press.
Ultimately, Maryland had built itself enough of a cushion to survive, and, thanks to solid free-throw shooting down the stretch, held on for its second straight victory.
Three things to know
1. Up-and-down performance. In the game’s middle two quarters, Washington didn’t even look like it belonged in the same gym as the Terps, but for the game’s bookends, the Huskies looked more than capable of pulling off the upset. The Terps, while happy to pull out the victory, will want to clean up the sloppiness with the postseason approaching.
2. Sellers returned to form. Since spraining her knee, Sellers hasn’t looked like the star Maryland fans have become accustomed to watching. In this game, however, she finished with 15 points, five assists and four rebounds.
3. Maryland played its game. The Terps leaned on the things they do best Sunday. They outrebounded the Huskies, 40-29, and got to the free-throw line more than twice as often. At the line, they shot 16-of-19, a good recipe for producing wins.