Maryland women’s basketball made a quick trip north to Piscataway, New Jersey, to collect its second conference road win of the season against Rutgers. The Terps dominated in every facet of the game to improve to 4-1 in Big Ten play.
Here are three takeaways from the game.
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Rutgers never stood a chance
It didn’t take long for Maryland to make it clear that this game felt a lot more like an early-season matchup with a mid- or low-major opponent than a conference battle.
The Terps opened the game on a 21-5 run fueled by a hot start behind the arc, forcing Rutgers into bad shots and turnovers. The Scarlet Knights had their only sustained success in the back half of the first quarter, cutting into the massive early deficit.
“I loved our start,” head coach Brenda Frese said. “We set the tone really, really aggressively with our defense.”
The next three quarters were all Maryland, though. Despite the Terps’ top three scorers — Yarden Garzon, Saylor Poffenbarger and Oluchi Okananwa — on the bench with two fouls each for much of the second quarter, Maryland blew the game open, extending its lead to 28 by halftime.
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In a conference as good as the Big Ten, non-competitive affairs like this come few and far between. None of Maryland’s starters played 30 minutes, with Poffenbarger playing just 13.
“At Maryland we have standards that we want to play to every single game,” Rainey Welson said. “We don’t want to drop down [in a game like this]. It’s going to help us in the long run to play to our standard.”
Maryland beat the Scarlet Knights in just about every category imaginable. It outrebounded them, won the turnover battle and shot the ball far more efficiently.
3-point barrage
The Terps shot the ball at a ridiculous rate on Thursday night. They finished 16-of-25 from beyond the arc, easily the most 3-pointers they’ve made in any game this season. In fact, 3-pointers accounted for over half of Maryland’s 88 points.
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It wasted no time getting started, hitting three deep range looks in the first two minutes of the game. Early on, the 3-point makes were evenly distributed, with every starter but Isi Ozzy-Momodu knocking one down in the first quarter.
Soon, the makes were dominated by two players who remained red-hot into the second half. One was Garzon — she was brought in from the transfer portal to be the ultimate sharpshooter, and continuously laced threes anytime the ball came to her. Garzon finished 6-of-6 from beyond the arc, her best shooting night as a Terp.
“It’s been a while [since I’ve seen a shooting performance like that],” Frese said. “Especially when you look at Yarden’s line, to be 100% from the 3-point line.”
The other was a surprise. Reserve freshman guard Rainey Welson came into the game against Rutgers shooting 2-of-17 from deep. Welson had a reputation as a deadeye shooter as a prospect and in practices — that skill was finally on full display in New Jersey.
The freshman caught fire, going 4-of-8 from deep and setting her new career high of 12 points.
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“It felt amazing just to see the ball go in,” Welson said. “My coaches and my teammates have been telling me to keep shooting, ‘if you keep shooting the stats will even out’.”
The Terps will hope to keep a fraction of the 3-point shooting momentum going as they look ahead at a murderer’s row of a schedule.
Maryland gained momentum before a dangerous stretch
That murderer’s row is referring to Maryland’s next eight games, where seven of its opponents will be ranked. The first slate of four games is particularly challenging — the Terps face No. 19 Ohio State, No. 21 USC, No. 4 UCLA and No. 14 Iowa.
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After a shaky performance against Illinois a week ago, Maryland has now responded with a comfortable home victory over Indiana and a road blowout of Rutgers. It’s trending in the right direction heading into the most dangerous stretch of their season.
“To have nine teams ranked in the top 25, it’s going to be an epic battle every single night,” Frese said.
Players like Garzon, Addi Mack, Welson and Ozzy-Momodu being major contributors to the dominant win is a huge boost for the Terps — they won’t be able to rely solely on the star play of Oluchi Okananwa against the conference’s elite.
Mack hit three triples for 15 points and Ozzy-Momodu logged a double-double, her second straight and third of the season.
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“I feel like we all know the Big Ten is the best conference in the country,” Garzon said. “We know what we have to do to win every game, we’re just focusing on right now and the next game.”
Ozzy-Momodu, in particular, is critical. The post player has looked more and more comfortable for Brenda Frese as she settles into a role of crashing the glass and being patient around the rim for easy baskets. She will have to contend with some of the conference’s best in the upcoming stretch, including Lauren Betts.
The Terps are also entering the stretch as one of the most banged up teams in the conference, and can absolutely not afford any other key pieces to go down. Maryland’s final ranking in the conference could very well be on the line over the next month, as it’s heading into it playing some of its most competitive basketball of the season.
“This is where you hope you’re trending in January,” Frese said.
