Before Wednesday, No. 22 Maryland women’s basketball had hit its lowest point over the past two seasons.
But the Terps found a spark and played their most complete game of the season, defeating No. 12 Michigan State, 86-70.
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Here are three takeaways from Maryland’s massive win.
The bench woke up
Throughout Maryland’s four-game losing streak, its bench had one true contributor. Through those games, Kyndal Walker accounted for 28 of the bench’s 43 total points.
Then, Walker had a breakout performance on Wednesday, as her 14 points fired up Maryland’s depth pieces, which came together to tally a conference play-high 32 points.
Walker showed tenacity that wasn’t present early in the season. She has become Maryland’s first option off the bench and a major contributor.
Mir McLean was also impactful. Her playing time has been limited throughout the season, but she had her best game on Wednesday with 10 points on 5-of-7 shooting.
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“Big minutes in production from [McLean] and [Walker]. They were both huge,” head coach Brenda Frese said. “Especially when we were weathering foul trouble in that first half, they gave us a huge boost.”
The Terps were also jolted by the return of Rainey Welson, who missed all four games of the losing streak with a concussion.
“Somebody who could space the floor, she hit a big three for us and was really good defensively,” Frese said of Welson. “Her minutes were really good as well. It gave us more depth off the bench and at the guard position.”
Welson only had six points against the Spartans, but her impact on the lineup can’t be understated.
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She logged 19 minutes and extended the lineup to give the Terps’ starters some needed minutes of rest.
“Having such a balanced team and a bench is amazing for any team,” Oluchi Okananwa said. “Being able to have so much confidence in the next man up really does take the pressure off, but also just gets me even more hype.”
Minutes distribution
Maryland’s increased bench effectiveness was a product of altered usage.
Frese rolled out the same starting lineup as she has since nonconference play ended: Mack, Okananwa, Yarden Garzon, Saylor Poffenbarger and Isimenme Ozzy-Momodu.
Poffenbarger and Garzon played the majority of the game, but the others had significantly less playing time than usual.
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Okananwa led the Terps with 23 points but only played 22 minutes while she was battling foul trouble.
“I knew I couldn’t get rattled despite having four fouls,” Okananwa said. “I was focused on going out there and proving to [Frese] that I can still keep my composure and still play in the game without fouling out.”
Ozzy-Momodu and Mack had more complicated nights.
Ozzy-Momodu played five minutes and committed three fouls. She was in foul trouble, but the Terps weren’t handcuffed by the lack of size.
For the first time this season, Frese went to McLean to play in that role. Maryland would usually go to Marya Boiko or Breanna Williams in that scenario, but McLean was more successful at filling in than both of them.
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Mack played seven minutes during the first quarter and then played eight for the rest of the night. Walker took Mack’s primary ball–handling role, and could take that role moving forward.
The bench played 48.75% of the game on Wednesday. The Terps extended their bench more than they had in any other competitive matchup.
“That’s the bench support we need,” it puts a lot of pressure on our big three with [Okananwa], [Garzon] and [Poffenbarger],” Frese said. “This team really grew, being able to weather that storm, we needed the bench.”
A massive bounceback
Given the circumstances, Maryland needed to win this game.
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The Spartans were the higher-ranked team, had much more momentum and were at home.
With a chance to set the longest losing streak under Frese with a loss, the Terps played better than they have since nonconference play.
Five players scored in double figures — something Maryland had only done once in Big Ten play.
Something changed.
“We were able to show them clips of what it looked like when we were beating teams [Kentucky, Minnesota and USC],” Frese said. “That was the film we showed them… We didn’t show any Oregon film; we showed us, and we just continued to build their confidence.”
The Terps needed a confidence boost. Instead of dwelling on losing the past four games, the Terps went back to what was working earlier in the season.
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It worked.
“We had confidence to be able to help boost us tonight,” Frese said.
Maryland looked like the team that grinded out crucial wins earlier in the season. It strayed away from not being able to win close games and the demoralizing loss at UCLA.
Moving forward, the Terps need to build off this win after tying their worst stretch under Frese.
