Maryland women’s basketball fans’ started Sunday with a piece of awful news — they won’t get to watch their team’s leading scorer Kaylene Smikle again until next season. Smikle’s lingering knee injury is going to require surgery and will sideline her for the rest of the season.
Nonetheless, Maryland had a game to play: its Big Ten opener on the road against Minnesota. After 50 minutes of basketball, Maryland came away with its first-ever double overtime win on the road.
Advertisement
Here’s how the Terps came back three different times.
Maryland trailed by 14 at the half…
In the first half, Maryland looked like a team missing a major contributor. After a competitive but sloppy first quarter, Maryland was up by one point. It followed that up with its worst quarter of the season, and hit halftime in a 14 point hole.
Gophers guard Grace Grocholski, who ended up with 31 points and nine threes, was already starting to cause the Terps problems. She knocked down three triples and dished out five assists in the first 20 minutes.
“We had a lot of adversity,” Frese said. “[We had] less time to prepare ourselves with [Smikle] going out, [we had] just two days to prepare a new lineup.”
Advertisement
Slowly but surely, the Terps clawed their way back in in the second half. Head coach Brenda Frese made some defensive adjustments, putting her team in a matchup-zone and deploying different variations of the full-court press. Maryland repeatedly turned Minnesota over, and found success attacking the rim.
Isimenme Ozzy-Momodu played one of her best quarters of the year, scoring five of her seven points while protecting the rim and coming up with a couple crucial rebounds.
After cutting into the Gophers’ lead in the third quarter, Maryland seized an advantage of its own in the fourth. Maryland leaned on a veteran in Saylor Poffenbarger to bring it back.
“These are the games you come to Maryland to play in,” Poffenbarger said. “My teammates and coaches just give me so much confidence to make big shots.”
Advertisement
In a one-minute stretch, Poffenbarger made a three and a layup, got a block and sent an assist to Oluchi Okananwa in transition. That took Maryland from a five-point deficit to a two-point lead.
Maryland fought to hold its lead and was up by three with under a minute to go. Then, Amaya Battle drove and attacked Mir McLean off the dribble, went into her chest and finished an and-one. She sank the extra free throw and knotted the game at 70.
Both teams had a chance to win it, but neither could convert. The Terps headed to overtime having erased a 14-point halftime deficit.
Then, the Terps were down five with 13 seconds left in overtime…
The first overtime contained many of the issues that had haunted Maryland all game. Grocholski nailed an early 3-pointer before the Gophers began to attack inside.
Advertisement
Battle and Tori McKinney continuously attacked Maryland off the dribble, frequently coming up with a foul call or a made layup. That recipe led to Mir McLean picking up her fourth foul and Ozzy-Momodu fouling out. Okananwa had been playing with four fouls since the fourth quarter, making her reluctant to challenge on defense.
“Really proud of the discipline of this group saddled with a lot of foul trouble,” Frese said. “They got to the free throw line 40 times.”
Minnesota ended 31-of-40 from the stripe, while Maryland went 15-of-20.
Trailing by three with 19 seconds left, Maryland had to intentionally foul Battle. She went to the line and sank both, pushing the Gophers’ lead to five. Maryland was in desperation mode without a timeout.
Advertisement
In transition, Addi Mack sprinted up the floor and ran a dribble handoff to Yarden Garzon. Garzon had been noticeably absent all game — she had just eight points and looked seriously out of rhythm, missing multiple threes and rough fadeaway attempts.
It didn’t matter. The veteran laced the three from multiple feet behind the line on the wing. The Gophers’ lead was suddenly two.
Near the sideline in front of Maryland’s bench, Minnesota’s inbound pass to McKinney was instantly trapped by Mack and Rainey Welson. McKinney took a panicked step out of bounds.
Poffenbarger tossed the inbound pass right back to Garzon in the post. She got around her defender and went up and under with two hands for a crafty layup.
Advertisement
“It was going to take each and every one of us,” Frese said. “The experience that Saylor, Oluchi, Yarden, and Mir brought was really big.”
The Gophers heaved up a last second shot, but it was no good. Garzon had willed Maryland into a second overtime.
Then Minnesota led by nine with 49 seconds left in the second overtime…
In the second overtime, it seemed Maryland’s magic had finally run out. The Terps’ offense went cold while the Gophers continued piling up free throws.
With just over two minutes left, Maryland was down two points and in need of a stop. Grocholski took Garzon in isolation. For 10 seconds, Garzon played perfect perimeter defense, only for Grocholski to rainbow in a heavily contested step-back three.
Advertisement
That seemed to deflate the Terps — their scoring dried up while Minnesota extended its lead at the line.
Down 99-90 with 47 seconds left, Poffenbarger drew a foul and made both free throws, which seemed like they would be inconsequential consolation points for the Terps.
After Poffenbarger sank the second, Frese made a surprising decision. Kyndal Walker, who had played two minutes all game, jogged to the scorer’s table and replaced Poffenbarger.
Once again, Maryland’s energetic young guards in Welson and Mack trapped McKinney when she caught the inbounds pass. McKinney tried to send the ball up court, but Walker sprinted in and picked the pass off. She went straight to the rim and finished through contact — after the and-one free throw, Minnesota’s lead was four.
Advertisement
“Kyndal had the most impactful minute on the floor, we talked about being ready when your number is called,” Frese said.
Then, it was Battle’s turn to get trapped. She tried to throw a pass around three Maryland defenders, only for a streaking Okananwa to intercept it, instantly drawing another and-one. The two identical plays were just two seconds apart — Maryland had gone on 8-0 run in nine seconds.
“At one point I had to ask if we had done two or three overtimes,” Frese said. “I am coaching possession by possession. When you talk about mental fortitude it is literally offense [then] defense.”
The Terps needed one more stop. With a five-second difference between the shot and game clock, Frese elected to play straight up. Battle chucked the ball out of bounds for her seventh turnover and Minnesota’s 18th.
Advertisement
Out of a timeout, Poffenbarger sealed her defender and received a perfect inbounds pass from Garzon. Poffenbarger made the wide open layup, and somehow, Maryland was back in front.
She came up with one last deflection on the other end to disrupt Minnesota’s last chance. Frese’s famous slogan from the national championship team once again rang true for Maryland: “Overtime is our time.”
