Guard Brene Moseley drives the ball down the court during Maryland’s 102-53 victory over UMass Lowell on Nov. 14, 2015 at Xfinity Center.
Without former guard Lexie Brown, the Terrapins women’s basketball team needed a new starting point guard.
Brown, who had run the offense for nearly all of the past two seasons, transferred to Duke in the offseason, so guards Chloe Pavlech and Brene Moseley seemed like the two candidates expected to take over the starting role.
After starting in the team’s two exhibition victories, Pavlech also began Saturday’s season opener against UMass Lowell on the court.
Yet it was Moseley’s performance off the bench that sparked the No. 9 Terps’ 102-53 win over the River Hawks at Xfinity Center. The Burtonsville native poured in a team-high 24 points and tallied 10 assists as coach Brenda Frese’s squad began its quest at a third-straight Final Four.
“She got the ball in the right places,” Frese said. “She was really aggressive and confident with her shot. Taking it to the rim, she was really a difficult matchup for them and did a terrific job.”
With 26 seconds left in the contest, Moseley nailed a three pointer to surpass guard Shatori-Walker Kimbrough as the team’s leading scorer. Her long-range jumper also solidified the Terps’ third straight game in which they eclipsed 100 points.
While Moseley led in points and minutes played (26), Walker Kimbrough carried the Terps in the opening half, starting with four free throws that marked the team’s first four points of the season.
And after holding an 8-5 lead with 6:25 left, the Terps scored 22 unanswered points before the River Hawks converted on a layup as the quarter expired. Walker Kimbrough poured in 11 points during that stretch, helping the Terps (1-0) end the frame with a 30-7 advantage over the River Hawks (0-1).
“She was terrific, and I thought she took what the defense gave her,” Frese said. “Just really got our team clicking on all cylinders.”
Walker-Kimbrough entered intermission with 20 points, but it was Moseley and forward Kiah Gillespie who shouldered the offensive production in the second quarter.
Gillespie, a freshman and former McDonald’s All-American, tallied seven of her 11 points in the period, while Moseley came off the bench and added 10 points before the break. The duo helped Frese’s team take a 58-19 advantage into the locker room.
Frese said the Terps talked at halftime about playing their game instead of competing based on the score. And while she acknowledged her team wasn’t as effective defensively after intermission — the Terps only outscored the River Hawks, 45-32, in the second half—the veteran coach said her team would improve on those things, like their 15 turnovers, going forward.
Despite their sloppy play at times, the Terps showed their ability to find open teammates. They assisted on 24 of 37 field goals, which included the 10 dimes from Moseley.
“My teammates just did a good job of getting open,” Moseley said. “They had a lot of open reads, and it was just easy to just get them the ball. It made my job easy.”
Pavlech didn’t fare as well as her veteran counterpart, as she was 0-for-5 from the field and dished out two assists in 17 minutes. Frese called the senior’s performance “uncharacteristic” and thought the River Hawks were able to speed her up at times during the game.
Even so, Frese had the luxury of inserting Moseley, who was 3-for-4 from behind the arc and drained five of her six free throw attempts. And without Brown, who averaged 13.3 points her game last season, Moseley’s provided valuable backcourt scoring in the Terps’ season-opening win.
“You see our scoring is going to come in a variety of ways, but Brene knows we have to have offense at that position,” Frese said. “She’s got a beautiful shot from three, and I think she’s such a difficult matchup when you talk about her three ball, her pull up and getting to the rim.”
