The Terps had a season-high 27 turnovers.
Maryland women’s basketball made the trip north to New Jersey for its first non-conference game in a month, taking on Texas in the first-ever Coretta Scott King Classic.
The top-10 matchup resulted in the Terps’ first decisive loss of the season, as they were blown out, 89-51. Here are three takeaways from the game.
Injuries look devastating
The Terps entered the game well aware of the fact that they’d be without their top bench option and spark-plug, Bri McDaniel.
“We spoke as a team, we’re not going to be able to replace a player like Bri,” head coach Brenda Frese said.
But they didn’t know that in the second quarter — after an already disastrous start to the game — they’d lose their star and leader Shyanne Sellers.
“We’re trying to regroup as a team losing Bri, and then having [Sellers] go down was also extremely painful,” Frese said.
Sellers and McDaniel are not only two of Maryland’s most talented players, but they are the team’s veteran leaders.
The game got away from Maryland early. In fact, it was already in a near-20 point hole when Sellers, who was off to a tough start, went down.
Still, the Sellers injury dashed any hope of a potential comeback. Frese didn’t seem to have faith in any of her other active players that are outside the normal rotation, waiting until the game was well out of hand to introduce Ava McKennie and Amari DeBerry.
“It was a right knee that made contact, she’ll be evaluated by the doctor tomorrow,” Frese said of the injury.
McDaniel has been a steadying force when the Terps are in tough stretches and need a stop or a basket. Her absence was apparent after the Terps went down big early.
Sellers is also seen as a prospective WNBA first-round pick for a reason and is coming off her best basketball of the season, winning Big Ten Player of the Week ahead of the game.
Texas was too big for the Terps
For the first time all season, Maryland looked legitimately overmatched in the paint.
Texas’ front court combination of Kyla Oldacre and Taylor Jones, who are 6-foot-6 and 6-foot-4 respectively, were a headache on both ends for Frese and the Terps.
“They used their size and advantage inside to come out and gives us that first punch,” Frese said.
The two combined for 28 points and 15 rebounds, which helped Texas to a 35-29 advantage on the glass. Seventeen of the rebounds were offensive, leading to 18 second-chance points for the Longhorns.
“I don’t think they felt that much bigger,” Kaylene Smikle said. “I just don’t think were doing little things well like boxing out and trying out-jump them.”
Maryland also had a much harder time getting to the rim than it has in most games this season, as Texas’ bigs heavily affected shots at the rim.
On the other hand, Texas’ star Madison Booker was in attack mode all game long, finishing with 28 points.
Ultimately, Texas won the points in the paint battle, 52-34.
Maryland’s offensive execution was at a season-low
The Terps have not struggled as much on the offensive end this season as they did Monday.
The trouble started early, as they were unable to execute against Texas’ smothering full court press, throwing the ball out of bounds. That trend continued through the night en route to Maryland’s season-high 27 turnovers.
“Guard play,” Frese said in response to what was going wrong offensively. “We’ve got about seven forwards coming off the bench and we’ve got one guard coming off. Against a pressing team you’ve got to be able to have ball handlers.”
Sellers, Smikle, Christina Dalce and McKennie all were tied for the team high with four turnovers.
When Maryland drew fouls, it couldn’t successfully capitalize, starting the game 1-of-6 from the free throw line.
The Terps attempted just 22 field goals in the first half, a result of their turnovers and inability to get offensive rebounds. They made seven field goals for a season-low 18 first half points on under 32% shooting from the field.
Things did pick up slightly in the second half, but that was long after the result of the game was set in stone. The biggest bright spot was Smikle’s 15 point performance, 11 of which came from the free throw line.
Maryland attempted seven 3-pointers on the evening and didn’t make a single one.