The Terps staved off a late comeback effort to end their three-game losing streak.
After three straight losses and a slew of injuries, Maryland women’s basketball faced a crucial get-right opportunity on the road against a Penn State team with just one conference win.
After 40 minutes, the Terps got the job done, winning 82-73, despite another dicey fourth quarter that allowed Penn State to cut their lead as low as two.
Here are three takeaways from the game.
Sarah Te-Biasu had a career night
Tuesday’s win represented Sarah Te-Biasu’s best basketball game in a Maryland uniform, and without her performance, Maryland may not have held on for the victory.
Te-Biasu finished with a season-high 20 points, four assists and two turnovers.
“It was just being confident,” Te-Biasu said, “being confident and playing for each other.”
She has been heating up from deep in recent games, and head coach Brenda Frese has encouraged her to let loose from range given Maryland’s injuries. She hit four triples.
The undersized point guard has been called upon to play a larger role with Maryland given its depleted group of guards. Her ability as a primary ball handler has become more important than ever.
“That’s what we need from her,” Frese said. “I thought she had total control over the game.”
Te-Biasu played all but three minutes of the game, and despite her teammates struggling to break the press, she was composed.
Poor late-game execution, again
In both wins and losses this season, Maryland has struggled to protect leads late in games and has been susceptible to being sped up by a full-court press.
The Terps, who were previously up by 20 points, allowed Penn State to cut their lead as low as two points with under five minutes to play before finding their footing and reclaiming control.
The Nittany Lions deserve credit for a resilient performance and making some tough shots during their scoring run, but a lot of it was self-inflicted Maryland mistakes off sloppy turnovers and poor shot selection.
“We need to continue to work on some of those turnovers they forced in the fourth quarter,” Frese said.
Five of the turnovers came from Shyanne Sellers in her return to the lineup, which Frese called “uncharacteristic.” Yet, in her last five games, Sellers has averaged five turnovers per contest.
In the midst of Penn State’s run, Frese made a surprising adjustment by bringing in Emily Fisher, who has not played in most of Maryland’s games this season.
Frese’s reasoning for bringing in Fisher was due to the team’s need for a ball handler. Fisher responded by helping Maryland break the press and hitting a clutch layup to push its lead back to four points.
“I thought they were seven of the most impactful minutes a player could have,” Frese said. “She made a big impression.”
The Terps struggle against a dominant big
Fresh off a game against No. 1 UCLA, in which Bruins’ star center Lauren Betts dominated Maryland in the paint, the Terps let a different post player have her way with them in State College.
Gracie Merkle, listed at 6-foot-6, dropped 24 points and grabbed a game-high seven rebounds, helping Penn State outrebound Maryland, 30-24. She missed just two field goals.
Akin to the UCLA game, Frese briefly tried to use Amari DeBerry as a counter, but didn’t have much success.
“Even as we tried to match her with some of our size, I mean she’s just a really, really strong post player,” Frese said. “You could see, even when she had two or three people draped on her, she was able to get the shot up.”
Dealing with players of Merkle’s stature has been a consistent concern for the Terps the last couple of years. It became particularly obvious in the NCAA Tournament last season as Iowa State’s Audi Crooks scored 40 points against them.
Merkle likely won’t be the last dominant post player Maryland matches up against this year, so Frese and her staff will have to continue to work on ways to slow that archetype down. Even so, she didn’t think Merkle’s performance was too damaging.
“I think the beauty is we were able to get twos versus threes,” Frese said. “You’re kind of picking your poison a little.”