The Terps pulled away in the fourth quarter for their 15th win of the season.
After its first loss of the season, Maryland women’s basketball went on the road and pulled out a scrappy victory over Wisconsin, 83-68.
Here are three takeaways from the game.
Maryland felt its absences
For the first time all season, Maryland had to play without multiple members of its key seven-woman rotation.
Sarah Te-Biasu and Saylor Poffenbarger, who have both been regular starters, were out for the Terps Saturday with an ankle injury and illness, respectively.
Maryland overcame their absences, but not without struggles and scares along the way.
The Terps let a Wisconsin team that is now 1-5 in Big Ten play hang around for most of the game. The Badgers led for a stretch of the third quarter and had Maryland’s lead as low as one point with under eight minutes to go, before the Terps ultimately pulled away.
Maryland shoots a relatively small amount of 3-pointers on a game-by-game basis, but without two of their biggest threats from range, Maryland was just 2-of-8 from deep. Wisconsin hit nine triples on the other end, which kept it in the game.
Without Poffenbarger, Frese had limited options when she wanted to have size in the game. Allie Kubek and Christina Dalce were both in foul trouble, so Frese experimented with some more minutes for reserve center Amari DeBerry. But Frese was unsatisfied with her production, pulling her after just two minutes.
As a result of all these factors, Maryland played without a true big for stretches of the game, giving up a lot of size to Wisconsin’s 6-foot-4 star Serah Williams.
“I went a little bit more conservative, trying to protect [Kubek] and the foul trouble of the bigs,” Frese said. “The zone hurt us to start the third quarter which gave them a lot of momentum.”
Williams finished with 24 points, but Maryland did a good job keeping her off the glass, as she grabbed just five rebounds.
Maryland leaned on its stars late
On the offensive end, the game was won by four players for Maryland. Seventy-five of Maryland’s 83 points came from Dalce, Shyanne Sellers, Bri McDaniel and Kaylene Smikle.
Sellers and McDaniel led the team with 21 apiece. The other starter, Kubek, was limited with foul trouble and scored six. The Terps got only two points off a limited bench.
McDaniel, who usually comes off the bench, was tremendous late in the game when Maryland needed to put the Badgers away.
“I kind of blacked out most of the time during that game,” McDaniel said with a laugh.
Sellers also responded to a quiet first half, scoring 17 of her 21 points in the second half. Wisconsin sent five-foot-four Ronnie Porter to guard her, and Sellers responded by dominating her down low.
“You could see the fatigue from the other night for her,” Frese said. “But she’s a competitor, she’s a winner. I thought she put the team on her back like she’s supposed to do.”
Dalce also continued her strong form from USC, putting up 15 points and eight rebounds before fouling out.
Smikle had 18 points and eight rebounds, after Frese challenged her guards to do a better job on the boards.
Terps dominated the paint
Despite Wisconsin playing through its two big forwards, it was Maryland who dominated around the rim, outscoring the Badgers 54-20 on points in the paint.
After a game against USC in which Frese said she thought the team settled for some bad shots, the Terps focused on getting downhill all game long. No one exemplified the advantage better than McDaniel, who attacked the rim violently.
“Just trying to stay on attack mode, draw fouls, get my teammates the best looks that they can close to the basket,” McDaniel said.
The Terps’ aggressive approach earned them 24 free throws, which they made 17 of.
Sellers and Dalce were also fed the ball deep in the defense, allowing them to post up their defenders. Mir McLean had six assists and was Maryland’s best facilitator, continuously finding cutters to the rim.
And while Smikle shot five threes, she was at her best when she was attacking her defenders off the dribble. She finished 7-of-16 from the field.