No. 22 Maryland women’s basketball pummels Nebraska, 78-60

Over the last few weeks, No. 22 Maryland women’s basketball has had a tendency to allow the opposing leading scorer to dominate. 

On Saturday, that wasn’t the case. Britt Prince came into Saturday averaging 18 points per game, but the Terps’ defense held firm. 

“Defensively, we were really good. Locked in on Britt, making her catches really difficult and even her back door cuts,” head coach Brenda Frese said. 

Maryland contained her to just seven points on 2-of-6 shooting en route to a dominating 78-60 win over Nebraska.

Through the Terps’ four-game losing streak, freshman guard Rainey Welson was absent with a concussion. She’s not Maryland’s most productive player, but she extends the lineup with an extra guard that can score. On Saturday, Welson’s career-high 13 points helped the Terps dominate.

“We were on a four game losing streak,” Welson said. “We needed that hype. We were going through the battles, but we just decided to really pour into each other on this road trip. You could see that on the court.”

Maryland’s lineup is more complete with Welson off the bench. Through the four-game losing streak, Frese constantly noted how young Maryland’s roster is and how it had affected them, along with being shorthanded in that stretch. Although Welson is another freshman, she gives the Terps more lineup flexibility. 

The Terps have five freshmen in the rotation, none of whom are expected to play upwards of 30 minutes a night. Without Welson, that’s what Frese was asking of either Addi Mack or Kyndal Walker. It wasn’t working. 

Maryland displayed a complete team effort on Wednesday at Michigan State. It did so again on Sunday against Nebraska. Four Terps scored in double figures, and they completely dominated the Cornhuskers throughout the afternoon. 

“Our pace is our identity, we’re at our best when we’re on our transition game. We were able to give Nebraska some struggle with our pressure,” Welson said. “They would score and we’d run it right back down their throats. That was just our mentality for this game.” 

Nine first-quarter points from Okananwa opened up a nice start for the Terps, but the offensive still left much to be desired. The Terps shot 7-of-19 in the opening frame, with many misses on makeable shots. 

Regardless, Maryland controlled the pace. The Terps pulled down a plethora of offensive rebounds, but missed too many layups on second-chance opportunities. 

The Cornhuskers kept things close through their 3-point proficiency. They connected on five of 11 attempts in the first half. 

Then, the Terps took full advantage. 

With fast offense and strong defense, the Terps embarked on a 9-0 run, finishing the half shooting 4-of-5 and leading by 17 at the break.

That lead ballooned to as much as 29 in the second half. 

The Terps shot well and held Nebraska in check — the second half wasn’t competitive. Logan Nissely had 22 points for the Cornhuskers, shooting 6-of-12 from deep for her first-ever 20-point game. But the Terps’ ability to limit everything else made that individual effort essentially meaningless. 

Maryland also held a former Terp, Emily Fisher, to one point in what could’ve been considered a revenge game. 

In a dominating win like this, Maryland often has a clear leading scorer, typically Okananawa. 

She is the Terps’ leading bucket-getter and had a good performance on Saturday. But after her nine-point first quarter, Okananwa only scored five more across the remainder of the game and wasn’t overly effective. 

The Terps didn’t need one of her signature performances; she only logged 18 minutes. The Terps were more reliant on the likes of Isimenme Ozzy-Momodu and Welson. 

After a rough spiral, Saturday’s convincing win seems to show that Maryland is back on track. Back-to-back complete team efforts should give the Terps a guideline on how they will need to play moving forward. 

With five regular-season games remaining, the Terps look to continue to battle back from one of their most calamitous stretches in years. Saturday served as another stepping stone for Maryland to return to the status it held earlier this season. 

“We have great perspective. Those games came down to possessions that we weren’t able to close out,” Frese said. The schedule, everybody goes through it. You watch the spiral of different teams. You have to really keep your wits to yourself when you’re in those.” 

Three things to watch

1. Ozzy-Momodu’s bounceback. On Wednesday, Ozzy-Momodu played just five minutes, as she got into foul trouble. She played 20 minutes on Saturday and would’ve played even more if not for Maryland’s commanding lead. Ozzy-Momodu led the Terps with 16 points on 7-of-8 shooting and corralled nine rebounds. 

“Isi was huge. We recognize every game is different, but having her presence inside was massive,” Frese said.  “Her rebounding was huge for us. Points in the paint, points off turnovers. Those two areas were phenomenal for us.” 

2. Solid shooting. In the first quarter, the Terps shot 7-of-19 (36.8%) and finished the game shooting an even 50%. The Terps doubled the Cornhuskers’ output in the paint, scoring 44 points to Nebraska’s 22. Saturday was Maryland’s best shooting performance in Big Ten play.

3. Strong defense. The Terps held the Cornhuskers’ leading scorer, Prince, to seven points on 2-of-6 shooting on Saturday. With the exception of Nissley’s 22-points, the Terps completely neutralized Nebraska’s offense.