Maryland women’s basketball took down Ohio State on the road in a thrilling 19-point comeback, for maybe its most impressive win of the season. It marked the Terps’ fourth straight win, as they continue to build momentum with just three regular season games remaining.
Here are three takeaways from the thrilling contest.
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Frese made key halftime defensive adjustments
The Terps were getting gashed in the first half in a way that would have felt familiar to anyone who paid attention to the first contest between them and Ohio State.
Maryland tried to use its aggressive full-court press to disrupt Ohio State’s offense before the Buckeyes could create anything, but it backfired. Led by star point guard Jaloni Cambridge, Ohio State got the ball past halfcourt with ease and Maryland found itself scrambling to get set.
This resulted in wide open looks from deep — primarily for Cambridge and Chance Gray — who continuously made Maryland pay. The two combined for 34 first half points.
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An unhappy head coach Brenda Frese decided she needed to make a change. She opted for the triangle-and-two: a defense not commonly used past the high school level, where three players are in a zone and the other two play aggressive man-to-man on their opponent’s best two scorers, in this case Gray and Cambridge.
“That really disrupted them,” Frese said. “We wanted to take [Cambridge] and [Gray] away, so I thought that set the tone.”
Fourteen points in the third quarter was Ohio State’s lowest-scoring frame. Cambridge continued to cause problems with her ability to get downhill, but Gray had just six more points in the second half.
“Our guards did an amazing job [defensively],” Yarden Garzon said. “Everytime you have them stepping up for us, we trust them completely to be there and they trust us to be the help.”
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Slowing Ohio State down allowed Maryland to get out in transition and get its own offense going, leading to the dominant third quarter that it won, 26-14. Ohio State managed just four points in a five-minute stretch through the middle of the quarter.
The defensive momentum continued into the fourth, where the Buckeyes didn’t score for almost the entire first five minutes.
Okananwa’s supporting cast stepped up to ignite the offense
The defensive adjustment was the key for the Terps, but Maryland’s offense was also in need of a jump start in the second half.
The team’s star, Oluchi Okananwa, had 10 points in the first half, but beyond that, Maryland didn’t have much to rely on. In the second half, it was a different story.
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Despite Garzon going just 1-of-5 from deep in the first half, her confidence was unshaken. Frese played her for all 40 minutes and she continued to fire from deep, hitting four triples in the third quarter to bring Maryland back. She ended up taking 17 3-pointers, her career-high.
“I trust her, 40 minutes on the court, she just connects us,” Frese said. “She’s just so competitive and wants to make the right plays for her teammates and her team. The kid just wants to win.”
Freshman guard Addi Mack also came to life in the third frame. Mack put up eight of her 14 in the third quarter, when Maryland came back. The effort included a pair of massive threes, the second of which she celebrated with the bench, turning to them and shooting off three symbols with both of her hands.
“Coach B always says, ‘Who wants the smoke?’” Mack said. “We came in that second half with a complete shift in our mentality … we wanted to show everybody who we are and what our identity is.”
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Poffenbarger also turned the page. She didn’t turn it over once, knocking down two critical fourth quarter 3-pointers.
Okananwa ended up missing most of the fourth quarter with foul trouble before ultimately fouling out, but the Terps showed that they could get the job done in a tough environment without relying on their star.
Frese’s fantastic February rolls on
The Terps are 29-6 in February across the past five seasons, a month Frese has described as the chance to separate the elite teams from the pack.
This year’s February run has been against all odds for Maryland. It entered it on a four game losing streak, and with four players out due to season-ending injuries, it seemed it just might not be Maryland’s year. But the Terps have now won four straight, with two coming against top-10 conference opponents on the road.
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“You go through ups and downs throughout a season and I think we did a really good job of staying connected and together,” Mack said. “I think that’s showing in these last couple days.”
Maryland’s momentum has kept it in contention for a top-four seed in the NCAA Tournament. Yesterday, the selection committee released its first bracket of the year, which featured the Terps as the No. 13 ranked team, and Ohio State at No. 9.
This bracket puts Maryland firmly in position to host the first two rounds as a top-four seed as long as it avoids more upset losses.
An unsung hero for the Terps in this year’s February turnaround has been Mir McLean.
McLean went from an inconsistent role — not knowing if she’d play even five minutes — to a consistent contributor on both ends of the floor. McLean is a captain and has said multiple times she prides herself on being a veteran glue-player for Frese.
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In the win over Ohio State, McLean played 33 minutes in place of an injured Isi Ozzy-Momodu, and contributed eight points and seven rebounds.
If Ozzy-Momodu’s injury is serious, it could throw a wrench in Maryland’s hot February, as she’s the Terps’ only reliable traditional center.
“Hopefully we get [Ozzy-Momodu] back, that’s a huge blow for us,” Frese said. “Luckily we go into a bye week, so that timing is perfect for us.”
