The Big Ten’s women’s basketball giant #3 Maryland (19-1, 7-0 Big Ten) harvested another lackluster win over a mediocre conference opponent plodding their way to an 80-71 victory over Rutgers 6-15, 3-5 Big Ten) Sunday afternoon in front of an announced crowd of 6,236 – Maryland’s second largest home crowd of the season – at the Xfinity Center in College Park.
Following a brief pregame ceremony honoring senior center Brionna Jones for become the fifth woman in Maryland history to pass 1,000 career rebounds, the game got off to a sluggish start for the Terrapins. They missed their first seven three point shots against Rutgers’ zone and turned the ball over 10 times in the first half. From the seeds of those troubles sprouted only 14 first quarter points – Maryland’s lowest first quarter output for the season. The Terps finished with 18 turnovers and 18 assists.
Maryland’s offensive output grew slightly more fertile in the second period thought it was fueled by a late flowering of a pair of three point shots from freshman point guard Destiny Slocum. The second of those came from just a step or so beyond the big M that adorns the floor of the court at Maryland just as time expired.
The momentum from that shot carried over into the second half and the Terps’ offense shot up on a growth spurt that saw them open the quarter on a 21-14 run. Maryland made eight of nine shots including three pointers by Slocum, Shatori Walker-Kimbrough and Kristen Confroy and committed only a single turnover.
Having grown their lead to 21 points the Terps simply tended the lead until Coach Brenda Frese began to empty her bench with Maryland ahead 74-57 and less than three minutes play. Maryland still led by 18 with 1:44 to play but a series of turnovers and missed free throws allowed the visiting Scarlet Knights to close the game on a 14-6 run for leaving Maryland ahead by a somewhat deceptive nine points when the final buzzer sounded.
Individually, Jones finished with 11 points and 13 rebounds. It is the senior’s 10th consecutive double double and 14th for the season. Slocum, the freshman point guard from Ohio notched the first double double of her young career dishing out 11 assists to complement her 11 points. Another freshman, Kaila Charles continued her growth and led Maryland with 18 points. Walker-Kimbrough added 17 to give the Terps four double figure scorers for the day.
The Terrapins travel to Illinois for a game with the Fighting Illini (8-12; 3-4) Thursday night before returning home to open the second half of the conference schedule when they host the Iowa Hawkeyes Sunday, January 29th.
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