College basketball rosters are usually fluid from season to season. Thus, it typically takes many years for rivalries to develop. However, when you’re the University of Maryland women’s basketball team and your combined regular season and conference tournament record against everyone in the Big Ten not named Ohio State is 63-1 but your record against Ohio State is 2-3 and includes three straight losses, that experience can sow the seeds of a rivalry. Now, I can’t tell you whether the Terps had this game circled on their calendar – especially after last season’s 98-87 loss in Columbus when the Buckeyes made 17 consecutive baskets – but Maryland played with a level of focus, intensity and control unlike any they’ve displayed this season dominating every facet of the game in a 99-69 rout at the Xfinity Center in front of a crowd of 7,944.
Although it was a total team effort, the first quarter and much of the first half belonged to Eleanna Christinaki. The junior transfer from Athens by way of Florida set the tone and shocked the Buckeyes by opening the scoring with a short jumper and a pair of three pointers that propelled Maryland to an 8-2 lead and prompted a timeout by Ohio State’s Kevin McGuff just 2:45 into the game. It didn’t help much as the Terrapins built their lead to as much as ten points at 25-15 and would end the quarter with a 27-19 lead. Christinaki finished the period with 11 of her 26 points and four of her eight rebounds.
Feeding off that energy, and scrapping for every loose ball, the Terps also continued their hot shooting in the second period building a 50-35 advantage. Christinaki added another eight points while Kristen Confroy dropped in a pair of three pointers as Maryland would finish 8-12 from behind the arc for the half. Meanwhile, on the defensive end, the Terrapins were busy shutting down Ohio State’s star guard Kelsey Mitchell. Mitchell, who scored only five first half points finished with just 15 fully 10 points below her conference leading 25.3 coming into the contest.
Maryland also continued to improve in controlling the ball. The Terps finished the half with just five turnovers – all of which came in the first 10 minutes. Maryland would turn the ball over five times in the second half as well but two of those came late when the game was well in hand and Coach Frese had reached down her bench to allow Sarah Myers and Aja Ellison some rare playing time.
If the first half belonged to Christinaki, guard-forward Kaila Charles put her stamp of ownership on the second half. The sophomore from Glenn Dale looked every Buckeyes player in the eye and dared them to stop her slashing drives to the basket. No one did. For all of Christinaki’s first half fireworks, it was Charles who would lead the Terps with 32 points on the night with 20 coming in the second half.
But it wasn’t simply the efforts of Charles and Christinaki. Although she took only four shots – missing them all – freshman point guard Channise Lewis played well beyond her years dishing out 10 assists while committing only a single turnover. Splitting time in the front court, Breanna Fraser and Stephanie Jones each reached double figures with Jones dropping in 14 while Fraser added 12 more. The pair also combined for a dozen rebounds.
And when those two weren’t corralling the boards themselves, they did enough to keep balls alive to allow Confroy to grab a team leading nine and Lewis to chip in with five. In all, the Terps would out rebound the Buckeyes 47-32.
Maryland travels to Northwestern to face the Wildcats Thursday night and will then have a week off before they host Rutgers on February second.
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