The Terps used a strong second half to avoid a massive upset.
At halftime in West Lafayette, Indiana, Maryland women’s basketball found itself in a nine-point hole to a substantial underdog in Purdue.
To the relief of Terps fans, they pulled out a victory in the second half, outscoring the Boilermakers 49-31 in the last two quarters.
Here are three takeaways from their 10th straight victory to open the season.
First half was Maryland’s worst of the year
The Terps looked completely out of sorts in their first half of Big Ten basketball this season.
The offense fell flat on its face out of the gate, managing just six first quarter points against a Purdue team that given up the most points per game in the Big Ten.
“I don’t think you could have had a worse start for us,” head coach Brenda Frese said.
Maryland’s struggles weren’t for a shortage of good looks either, as it missed easy layups and its best shooters couldn’t make open 3-pointers. The team was 0-of-8 from beyond the arc and 2-of-17 from the field in the opening quarter.
There was literally nowhere for the Terps offense to go but up. And it did in the second quarter.
Maryland found its stride and put up 23 points, but the defensive end saw things deteriorate.
Purdue guard Rashunda Jones gave Maryland fits with her speed and ability to get downhill, though, scoring seven points in the second quarter and 13 in the half.
“We had no answer for Rashunda [in the first half],” Frese said.
Maryland headed to the locker room down nine points to a team that most expected them to handle comfortably.
The Terps shot under 29% from the field in the half, while Purdue shot 53.3%.
“Shoutout to Purdue,” Bri McDaniel said. “They definitely got us out of our Maryland defense and just disrupted us everywhere, just being an aggressive team.”
Maryland showed resilience
For one of the first times this year, Maryland fans got to see how the team would respond with its back truly up against the wall.
While Purdue opened up its lead all the way to 16 had an energized home crowd to lean on, Maryland was able to remain calm and mount a second-half comeback.
“I told them in the locker room, a lot of teams when they were down 16 could have folded,” Frese said. “I thought our energy and effort to win a game on the road … and not play to the level we know we can play at is encouraging.”
Maryland improved in just about every aspect of the game in the second half.
It scored 20 more points, shot the ball over 30% better and, perhaps most importantly, turned it over just twice compared to nine times in the first half.
“We had to make a change,” Saylor Poffenbarger said. “I think our response was really, really impressive for us.”
The comeback started right out of the second-half gate, as Maryland instantly began cutting into Purdue’s lead.
The Terps won the third quarter, 26-14, to put them up three heading into the game’s final period, where they would grow their lead all the way to nine.
Maryland finally got going from beyond the arc in the final frame, where they had struggled the whole game knocking down four triples to close the game out. The four included two big ones from Sarah Te-Biasu and Poffenbarger to help push the game out of Purdue’s reach.
Bri McDaniel’s impact was felt
McDaniel played a massive role in bringing Maryland back into the game on both ends of the floor.
McDaniel answered the call when Maryland needed points as she has done consistently in important moments in 2024.
She scored 13 of her 16 points in the third quarter, the time in which Maryland took its first lead of the game.
“It [having McDaniel off the bench] is incredibly valuable,” Frese said. “She understands her role, just seeing that growth and maturity just gives us a huge spark off the bench.”
McDaniel is a difference maker on both ends of the floor. Offensively, she went into attack mode getting to the rim and defensively, Frese assigned her with stopping Purdue’s hottest scorer in Jones.
When asked about keys to Maryland’s second half defensive improvement, Frese said, “having Bri on the floor.”
After scoring 13 points in the first half, Jones had just four in the second 20 minutes.
“I gotta be the energetic bunny,” McDaniel said. “Just being a sponge, being that person that everyone can lean on, and vice versa, being able to lean on them.”
Despite starting the game on the bench, McDaniel finished second on the team with 32 minutes played.