After practice Tuesday afternoon, Terrapins women’s basketball center Malina Howard stressed the importance for her team to stay versatile. Guard Shatori Walker-Kimbrough entered Saturday’s game against Indiana as the team’s leading scorer at 18.1 points per game, but the Terps featured five players averaging at least eight points per game.
“You never know whose night it’s going to be that night,” Howard said. “So just everybody continuing working and putting in the work and being ready when their number is called.”
That depth was on display against the Hoosiers, as the Terps, who received 16 points each from guards Walker-Kimbrough and Brene Moseley, had five players score nine or more points. The balanced offense helped the No. 5 Terps secure an 86-63 win before an announced 6,230 at the Xfinity Center against a surging Hoosiers squad.
“[With] a team that has that many options as they do, we would try to take some of it away early,” Indiana assistant coach Rhet Wierzba said. “And I thought we would be able to take the inside away, but then their perimeter players stepped up and hit shots. They’re a really strong team.”
Center Brionna Jones and forward Tierney Pfirman joined Walker-Kimbrough and Moseley in double figures, while forward Kiah Gillespie finished with nine points.
Jones, a junior, also became the 31st player in program history to reach 1,000 career points.
“She’s literally every guard’s dream,” Walker-Kimbrough said. “Her hands, I mean, I probably would average like 12 turnovers if it wasn’t for her, so I mean it’s a blessing to be her teammate.”
In the first half, though, Jones was held scoreless, something Wierzba credited to Indiana’s ability to keep her from getting deep in the post. But after the Hoosiers strung a couple buckets together out of intermission to cut the lead to seven, the Terps silenced that run by going inside to the 6-foot-3 junior, who said she worked harder in the second half to get better positioning down low.
Her effort paid off, as Jones made back-to-back layups that set up her and-1 two possessions later to surpass 1000 career points. She scored all 10 points of her points in the quarter and finished with 12 rebounds.
“Bri Jones came to life,” Frese said. “She started to get a mindset that she’s unstoppable, which we know she is.”
Even with Jones being a non-factor early on, the Terps dominated the Hoosiers after allowing their opponent to score five of the game’s first seven points.
Whether it was Walker-Kimbrough getting into the lane and drawing fouls — the team’s leading scorer had seven points in the first quarter — or Pfirman drilling mid-range jumpers, the Terps (19-2, 8-1 Big Ten) scored the next 11 points and built a 13-point lead over the Hoosiers (13-9, 5-5) entering the second frame.
Neither player scored in the second quarter, though, and Indiana, which shot 24 percent in the first quarter, began making shots to close the gap. They outscored the Terps, 17-15, in the frame, and the gap would have been even closer had Moseley not taken over.
The Terps’ sixth man opened her scoring onslaught in the first quarter with a put back as time expired.
Moments later, she used a euro step to create space from her defender and convert the layup plus the foul. A pair of foul shots and three-point baskets followed as Moseley scored 11 points in the quarter to keep her team ahead by double digits.
Moseley said she got open shots because of the Hoosiers’ focus on limiting Jones, who received double teams at various times throughout the contest. But when that extra player came over, Jones was able to find open shooters. Moseley, who shot 3-for-3 from behind the arc, was one of four players to drill a 3-pointer.
All 12 eligible players received playing time — guard Ieshia Small is sitting out this year after transferring from Baylor — and forward Aja Ellison, who played one minute, was the only player held scoreless.
It was this type of team effort, which Howard echoed days earlier, that propelled the Terps to their seventh straight conference win.
