The Terps look to finish strong in their final road game of the regular season.
No. 19 Maryland women’s basketball heads to Indiana for its penultimate game of the regular season Thursday night.
The Terps have had a full week’s rest after winning both of their games last week and four of their last five.
Thursday’s game will begin at 7 p.m. EST and stream on Peacock.
Indiana Hoosiers (17-10, 9-7 Big Ten)
Head coach Teri Moren is in her 11th season with Indiana women’s basketball and the program’s winningest coach. She has led Indiana to five of the last six NCAA Tournaments.
This year has been an odd season for Indiana. Big Ten play hasn’t treated the Hoosiers well, as they’ve accumulated seven losses and haven’t stood out against the conference’s best.
In Indiana’s last two games, it upset then-No. 8 Ohio State at home before losing to then-No. 22 Michigan State.
Players to watch
Yarden Garzon, junior guard, 6-foot-3, No. 12 — Garzon leads the Hoosiers in scoring with 13.9 points per game. In her third season at Indiana, she has averaged double-digit points in each year. She also averages 5.3 rebounds and 3.4 assists this season.
Sydney Parrish, graduate student guard, 6-foot-2, No. 33 — Parrish is in her third season at Indiana after spending two years at Oregon. She averages 11.8 points per game, along with 5.5 rebounds and 1.6 assists per game.
Shay Ciezki, junior guard, 5-foot-7, No. 10 — Ciezki is in her first season with the Hoosiers after spending her first two seasons with Penn State. She averages 11 points, 2.1 rebounds and 2.9 assists per game.
Strength
Three-point shooting. Indiana has the third-best 3-point percentage in the Big Ten this season, shooting 36.3% from beyond the arc. Garzon is Indiana’s best shooter from three, hitting 39.5% of her attempts this season.
Weakness
Rebounding. Indiana is the worst rebounding team in the conference, averaging a Big Ten-low 33.6 rebounds per game. The Hoosiers rank 10th in the conference with 26.1 defensive rebounds per game, but only grab 7.5 offensive boards per game.
Three things to watch
1. Saylor Poffenbarger’s status. After suffering an injury last Thursday at Northwestern, Poffenbarger is listed as day-to-day with a lower leg injury. She has yet to be ruled out for Thursday’s contest.
2. Can the Terps finish strong? Thursday’s contest is Maryland’s second-to-last game of the regular season. In a year with plenty ups and downs, it will be important for the Terps to finish strong heading into the postseason.
3. Big Ten bracketology. The Terps are fourth in the Big Ten standings behind No. 2 UCLA, No. 4 USC and No. 12 Ohio State. The Terps will face Ohio State in their final game of the regular season, but as things stand now, Maryland would have a bye through the first two rounds of the conference tournament.