The Terps fell just short at the buzzer.
No. 14 Maryland women’s basketball fell to Illinois, 66-65, Sunday at Xfinity Center.
With Senior Day celebrations in full affair, the Terps could not find a way to get over the hump.
Here are three takeaways from Sunday’s loss.
Late-game situation
Sunday’s game came down to the wire, and the Terps had a chance to pull it out with 1.8 seconds remaining and the ball in Shyanne Sellers’ hands. Sellers had a good look, but her shot was just a bit too long.
“That was the look we wanted, felt good coming off, sucks it didn’t go in,” Sellers said.
The Terps had a slim two-point lead with just around a minute to go after Saylor Poffenbarger went 1-of-2 from the free-throw line. Seconds later, Illinois’ Brynn Shoup-Hill drilled a clutch 3-pointer.
“Big time, big time shot, and it’s great because Brynn is one of the best shooters that I’ve ever coached,” Illinois head coach Shauna Green said.
The Terps went blank on the next possession after Sarah Te-Biasu missed a good look from 3-point range, but luckily for the Terps, Poffenbarger forced a turnover and gave Maryland life.
Sellers went down the court and made a clutch turnaround jumper for a one-point lead, yet Genesis Bryant was fouled by Te-Biasu and made her free throws against a difficult crowd to steal the lead back for the Illini.
“The poise and the calmness and the confidence to just knowing the presence of mind, knowing that we always just want to set a high-ball screen there and get to the rim,” Green said. “That’s what a fifth-year point guard you expect them to do, and then to be able to go and hit the free throws. The place got loud in there.”
There are a lot of things to point to when it comes to Maryland’s loss on Sunday. The little things didn’t go the Terps’ way, and when a team loses by one, the miscues are intensified.
Game of runs
Sunday’s game went back and forth, leading to an exciting finish that saw the Illini escape with the victory.
There were 14 lead changes, and despite Maryland leading for more than 27 minutes and trailing for less than nine minutes, the Illini controlled the pace.
The Illini held Maryland to its second-lowest scoring output of the season, withstanding much of the Terps’ runs.
In the third quarter, Maryland went on an impressive 10-0 run with Sellers out with an injury. But once Sellers returned, Illinois responded with a 8-0 run that contained the deficit and allowed it to take control of the game. Sellers posted a -12 plus-minus Sunday, a game-worst.
Illinois killed the Terps from deep
Illinois shot 10-of-21 (47.6%) from 3-point range Sunday.
“We’ve been getting better and better. We didn’t make 10 threes the whole first half of the season,” Green said.
Six of the seven Illini that saw the court connected from deep, and the team only shoots 32.1% from three this year.
“I always say reps lead to confidence, and confidence leads to success. So, we were very intentional of using our time, getting on the gun and shooting, and from there, we’ve just continued to make more threes,” Green said.
Freshman forward Berry Wallace shot 4-of-9 from deep in what was arguably her best shooting performance of the season. Kendall Bostic, Shoup-Hill and Jasmine Brown-Hagger all made their only 3-point attempt.
“You see every single one of their kids had threes tonight,” Frese said. “Usually it’s just Genesis, so you saw the role player kids making threes. Their freshman, Barry Wallace, really impacted us from the 3-point line, and they’re a really hard scout.”