The Maryland women’s basketball bench has struggled at times during Big Ten play.
The reserves turned a 17-point lead over Rutgers into a nine-point advantage in a little over a minute Jan. 22. Early in the Terps’ contest with Illinois on Feb. 9, coach Brenda Frese thought her starters looked fatigued, so she made a plethora of substitutions. But Frese put the regulars back in after the bench couldn’t produce.
Maryland still pulled out easy wins in those games, holding off the Scarlet Knights’ comeback attempt to win, 80-71, and blowing out Illinois, 84-59.
The Terps’ lack of depth came back to haunt them, however, against No. 12 Ohio State on Monday. A lackluster bench performance combined with foul trouble derailed Maryland in its 98-87 loss in Columbus, Ohio.
“Not having the depth we normally have from the bench cost us,” Frese said. “Our starters ended up having to play more minutes than they needed to play tonight.”
Monday’s loss snapped the Terps’ 14-game win streak. It was their first Big Ten loss this season and puts them in a tie with the Buckeyes at the top of the Big Ten standings with one regular season game remaining.
Ohio State’s bench outscored Maryland’s, 26-7.
Four of the Terps’ five starters played at least 35 minutes. Guard Kaila Charles, the only one who didn’t, was hampered by foul trouble.
Midway through the first quarter, Charles picked up two fouls in less than a minute, prompting Frese to make her first substitution of the night.
“They were extremely aggressive,” Frese said. “They got us into early foul trouble, which impacted our rotations.”
Charles, who the team considers to be its best defensive stopper, left with the Terps leading, 14-12. Without Charles on the floor, Ohio State outscored the Terps, 23-8, the rest of first quarter and led 35-22 entering the second period.
Charles returned for the second quarter but was whistled for her third foul about two and a half minutes before halftime. She scored six points and helped the Terps cut the lead to nine points at intermission.
Frese elected to have the Glenn Dale native on the court to begin the second half. On the Buckeyes’ second possession out of the break, Ohio State guard Kelsey Mitchell drove toward the basket and into Charles, drawing her fourth whistle and earning her a seat on the bench for the rest of the third period.
“They did a really good job of attacking us off the bounce,” Frese said.
Charles played 17 minutes, short of her 23.5 average in Big Ten play, and her second-lowest conference total of the season.
Her fellow starters, meanwhile, were on the court nearly all game. Guard Destiny Slocum, who missed the team’s contest against Wisconsin on Wednesday due to illness, played 40 minutes and appeared to be breathing heavily at times during the fast-paced game. Frese admitted her team got tired after about three quarters.
“[Ohio State’s] bench and their depth was the difference as compared to what we had tonight,” Frese said, “which is disappointing in terms of how we typically have played.”
The Terps’ bench combined to play 33 minutes. Guard Blair Watson contributed 15 of them, grabbing seven rebounds and scoring five of the group’s seven points. Guard Ieshia Small hit a midrange jumper in the third quarter for the bench’s only other score.
The ineffectiveness from the reserves kept the starters, besides Charles, on the floor. Even though they closed the third quarter on a 14-0 run and trailed by just two points entering the final period, the Terps never got any closer than that as Ohio State pulled away to hand Maryland its second loss of the season.
Monday’s loss showed Maryland’s bench has more room for improvement with the postseason near.
“It is big motivation, always coming off a loss,” Slocum said. “You can always get better and grow from it, and I think that’s what we’ll do with this one.”
