Sunday made it clear that No. 12 Maryland women’s basketball was out of No. 3 UCLA’s league, falling 97-67 in a four-quarter beatdown. The Terps’ gameplan blew up in their face, and they suffered their worst defeat of the season.
Here are three takeaways from the loss.
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Betts didn’t kill the Terps…
Last season, Lauren Betts scored a career-high 33 points against Maryland on 14-of-15 shooting.
Whatever the Terps tried to do to limit her didn’t work. They tried having Amari DeBerry and Christina Dalce guard her; but no matter the coverage, she was the driving force behind UCLA’s victory last season.
The Terps did a better job of containing Betts on Sunday, but the game was significantly more out of reach nonetheless.
“[They] got a 6-foot-7 center inside that we started with the gameplan inside out, and she did a great job,” Frese said.
Maryland rotated Isimenme Ozzy-Momodu, Breanna Williams and Marya Boiko on Betts. Despite having clear size advantages on each of them, there wasn’t as much of a dominant performance from her.
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Betts only had 11 points. She came into Sunday averaging 16.4 points per game.
Ozzy-Momodu committed three fouls while trying to guard Betts. Boiko has the closest frame to Betts, but played just seven minutes and did not have much of an effect on the contest — she finished the game as a +1.
Williams played 13 minutes and was also challenged with contesting Betts. She was solid despite being a -11 and allowing some clear open looks.
The Terps had to disrupt passing lanes and double-team Betts to limit her production. Ultimately, the attempt to stop Betts was detrimental to Maryland in other areas.
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…But they sacrificed 3-point defense to guard her…
The Bruins shot 13-of-23 from beyond the arc Sunday. They came in shooting just 37.5% from deep.
“They’re all really good in their roles of what needs to be done based off the scout,” Frese said. “They were able to kick a lot of threes.”
It was clear that the Terps’ gameplan was tailored to contain Betts, seemingly ignoring the threat of the 3-point shot.
It’s become a trend; Maryland’s last two losses saw it get tormented from beyond the arc. Against Ohio State, it seemed like a fluky shooting performance from a bad 3-point shooting team. This wasn’t the case on Sunday.
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The Terps gave up too many open looks from deep, and the Bruins cashed in consistently. Five different Bruins converted from three.
“The adjustments we tried to make at halftime and hone in on their shooters. It’s just we had a really difficult time today with our defenses,” Frese said.
When the Bruins missed from downtown, they consistently got the offensive rebound and made the next shot.
“The -22 on the glass and the offensive rebounds, they really made us pay in that area,” Frese said. That’s probably the most disappointing piece.”
Moving forward, Maryland’s perimeter defense needs to improve. It was slow to contest, which allowed UCLA to have free rein from deep.
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…And it didn’t matter, because the Terps shot poorly.
The Terps knew that winning on Sunday would be a tough task. But if they wanted to compete, they needed to outshoot the Bruins, especially from the 3-point line.
If UCLA’s 13 threes didn’t make it obvious, the Terps made six on the same number of attempts. The Terps lost by 30 and the 3-point differential was only 18, but cutting that margin would’ve kept Maryland in the game.
In the two games leading up to Maryland’s trip to California, Yarden Garzon made 11 3-pointers. But she made only four combined treys on the road trip and shot 2-of-8 on Sunday. She’s widely regarded as Maryland’s best 3-point shooter, but didn’t do nearly enough to compete with UCLA.
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Oluchi Okananwa was Maryland’s only consistent 3-point shooter, going 3-of-4. Otherwise, the Terps were abysmal. Saylor Poffenbarger shot 1-of-6 from deep, Addi Mack was 0-of-4 and Williams also missed an attempt.
Moreover, the Terps were underwhelming from the field, shooting 26-of-70 (37.1%). It was mostly motored by Okananwa, Mack and Poffenbarger. That trio was a combined 21-of-42 (50%). The rest of the team was 5-of-28 (17.9%).
Against UCLA — a team where every player on the court could be a threat — the Terps needed to have a balanced scoring attack. UCLA’s was, and Maryland’s wasn’t.
The Bruins shot 62.5% from the field. Their worst shooting percentage was from the charity stripe — 44.4%.
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It’s not shocking that the Terps were dismantled by UCLA, but a better shooting performance could’ve stymied the blow.
“We’ve got five freshmen that are going through this for the first time against a Final Four team,” Frese said. “Just a ton of experience. They play the right way and make you pay for any mistake.”
