The Terrapins women’s basketball team was the preseason favorite to win its second-straight Big Ten regular season championship, but its road to the title was anything but straightforward.
After going 18-0 in conference play a year ago, beating Ohio State twice along the way, the Terps dropped both contests to the Buckeyes this season. It seemed as if No. 5 Ohio State would prevent coach Brenda Frese’s team from winning another crown.
Yet after the final buzzer sounded in the Terps’ 110-77 win over Minnesota at Xfinity Center on Sunday, they congregated at midcourt to celebrate their return to the top of the conference.
The Buckeyes dropped their past two games, allowing the Terps to leapfrog them in the standings and clinch the Big Ten title on Senior Day at Xfinity Center.
“This one’s special,” Frese said. “This one I’m going to remember for a long time. You couldn’t have scripted it any better for our seniors to be able to send them out in a game of this fashion. Picture-perfect game, I thought, in terms of how we were able to dominate.”
The blowout performance featured stout performances from the team’s two most consistent players throughout the campaign. Guard Shatori Walker-Kimbrough and center Brionna Jones, who entered the contest averaging 19.6 and 15.3 points, respectively, combined for 43 points for the Terps (27-3, 16-2 Big Ten).
Seniors Tierney Pfirman and Chloe Pavlech also scored in double digits for a Terps team that scored its highest total in a conference game since 2008.
The Golden Gophers (19-10, 11-7) received 26 points from guard Rachel Banham on 8-for-19 shooting. Nevertheless, Frese was pleased with her team’s effort in defending the nation’s second-leading scorer (27.8 points per game).
“I thought a phenomenal job defensively,” Frese said. “We knew Banham. We were hoping to be able to hold her under 30. We were able to do that. She’s a heck of a player.”
Banham was averaging more than 30 points per game in conference play, but a 6-foot-2 forward wearing red and white outshone her Sunday night.
Pfirman, who was honored before the game along with Pavlech, center Malina Howard and guard Brene Moseley, tallied career highs in points (29) and rebounds (13) in her final regular-season home game.
She began her career night early, scoring the game’s first points and reaching 11 points before intermission. By then, the Terps held an 18-point lead.
“They’re competing for a Big Ten championship [Sunday], and I thought that it showed from the jump,” Gophers coach Marlene Stollings said. “Just [a] well-oiled machine, and they were very explosive and put us back on our heels, and we never really recovered.”
The nation’s fourth-best scoring offense continued to pour it on in the second half, scoring 30 points in the third quarter and adding 28 in the final frame. For the game, the Terps shot 57.5 percent from the field, knocked down six threes and made all 12 of their foul shots en route to totaling a season high in points.
On the night, the Terps recorded 31 assists on 46 field goals. They scored 56 points in the paint. And they held a 53-23 rebounding advantage.
This all came against a team that took down Ohio State four days earlier.
The Terps might not have been viewed as the best Big Ten team at times throughout the regular season. But Sunday night, they secured their place as champions.
“Coming into the year, it’s a different team, it’s a different feel, but I think it’s just there’s no other team I’d rather win this with this year going out,” Howard said. “We just have such good relationships and such good chemistry and we all care for each other. I think it’s awesome when you have great teammates who play for your seniors. We’ve put in a lot of work, so it’s just really special.”
