Down by seven with 44 seconds left in double overtime, No. 7 Maryland women’s basketball had seemingly suffered its first loss of the season.
As Minnesota inbounded the ball, Kyndal Walker — who had played just two minutes — got a steal. She made and executed an and-one to cut the game to five.
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Just seconds later, the Terps did it again. Oluchi Okananwa got the steal and forced an and-one to cap off an improbable 8-0 run in nine seconds, cutting the deficit to one.
But there was still work to do. Maryland got a stop on another Minnesota turnover and relied on its best scorer on Sunday.
Saylor Poffenbarger knocked down a game-winning layup to propel Maryland to an improbable, 100-99, double-overtime win over Minnesota.
In the first overtime period, the Terps made a similar improbable comeback. Down by five with 18 seconds left in overtime, forward Yarden Garzon chucked up a shot that nobody thought would go in. She hit it. Then Minnesota guard Tori McKinney stepped out of bounds, giving the Terps a chance.
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The ball went right back to Garzon’s hands. She drove in and tied the game with a layup.
Sunday forced the Terps to come back constantly — they never had a comfortable lead. But other circumstances made the Terps’ trip to Minnesota much more difficult.
“We had a lot of adversity,” head coach Brenda Frese said. “When you talk about the foul trouble, we’ve had less time to prepare ourselves with [Smikle] going out in two days to prepare to a new lineup, but just some impactful minutes.”
Kaylene Smikle opted to end her year and undergo season-ending knee surgery, she announced on Sunday. She is the third Terp to suffer a season-ending injury — others had to step up.
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Early on, Maryland looked worse than it had all season — seeming severely undermanned against a conference opponent. In the midst of injuries, Poffenbarger answered the call.
The redshirt senior had a career-high 30 points and was Maryland’s motor in its second-half comeback, hitting the game-winner in double overtime.
“Maryland has a standard,” Poffenbarger said. “When you come to Maryland, you know the things that come with it.”
Maryland didn’t have a single free-throw attempt in the first half. After a relatively uncompetitive start to the season, the Terps had a rude awakening on the road. They clearly missed the presence of Smikle, and it took a while for them to string together some offense.
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Grace Grocholski was a huge factor for Minnesota, notching 31 points on 11-of-17 shooting. The Terps’ defense had no answer for her, and she killed them from deep, going 9-of-12 from 3-point range. She appeared to put the Terps away with a sensational fadeaway 3-pointer in double overtime as the shot clock expired.
The Terps were in severe foul trouble through most of the game, especially with Okananwa, who picked up her fourth midway through the fourth quarter. She never fouled out, though, and survived the entire game with 25 points and eight rebounds.
Isimenme Ozzy-Momodu did foul out but was an anchor defensively before that. She forced Minnesota into taking tough shots and added three steals, two blocks and eight rebounds. She proved her reliability in difficult situations.
The Terps stayed relentless and found a way to stay undefeated despite facing adversity for the first time all season.
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“The fight, the resiliency to never give up when you talk about that run, the 9-0 run there late with about eight seconds to be able to get into,” Frese said. “It felt like March. That’s what you’re going to see in the best conference in the country, that you’re going to have those battles every single night.”
Three things to know
1. Garzon came through when needed. Garzon had a rough showing early on, but she flashed signs of who she truly is when it mattered most. She shot 5-of-13 from the field and 3-of-6 from deep, scoring 15 points with nine assists and seven rebounds. But throughout all of her struggles through the season, she needed to find a moment to give her confidence — she did that when she scored five points in three seconds.
2. Early struggles. Maryland had a rough first quarter, starting 5-of-5 from the field before shooting 1-of-11 to end the quarter. This poor shooting persisted throughout the first half, as the Terps scored a season-low nine points in the second quarter.
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“Uncharacteristic second quarter for us,” Frese said. But just love the fact that it was a 50 minute game, and it was going to take each and every one of us.”
3. Mack made the most of her homecoming. Addi Mack grew up 15 minutes away from Williams Arena, and her homecoming was exactly what Maryland needed in the third quarter. Mack scored 16 points and was a driving force in bringing the Terps all the way back in the frame.
“I know that I’ve looked at this game on the calendar for a long time, ever since we had the schedule out, but it’s a great environment to play in,” Mack said. “I had a lot of people here that I knew, so just to be able to play such an exciting game and obviously come out with the win was really fun.”
