Terrapins women’s basketball guard Shatori Walker-Kimbrough has never had a performance in a college game like she had Tuesday night. In fact, nearly no other Terp ever has.
Entering the Terps’ contest with Purdue in Mackey Arena, Walker-Kimbrough was the team’s leading scorer at 18 points per game but had yet to eclipse 30 points. Her career high came Nov. 18 when she dropped 26 points against High Point.
She matched that scoring output against the Boilermakers, then exceeded it by 15 points to become just the second player in program history to score at least 40 points in a game.
Behind Walker-Kimbrough’s 41 points, the No. 5 Terps beat Purdue, 87-67, to earn their eighth straight conference win. Yet when asked about her performance after the game, she quickly diverted the attention away from herself.
“My teammates played most of the role — I have the greatest teammates ever,” said Walker-Kimbrough, who later commented that she didn’t think she had ever scored this many points in a game at any level. “The screens that they set. I mean, [guards] Chloe [Pavlech] and Brene [Moseley] calling play sets for me, just finding me on offense. Teammates on the bench giving me confidence. I mean, just all around. I give all the credit to them, honestly.”
But it was Walker-Kimbrough who earned the milestone by shooting 17-for-21 from the field and converting six of her seven free throws to secure the second-best individual scoring performance in school history. Former guard Marissa Coleman holds the all-time record, a 42-point outing against Vanderbilt in 2009.
The Terps (20-2, 9-1 Big Ten) shot 65.5 percent from the field, their second-highest mark this season. They shot 67.7 percent when they scored a season-high 106 points Dec. 20 against Maryland-Eastern Shore. Guard Kristen Confroy and center Brionna Jones finished with 13 points apiece against Purdue. Fellow center Malina Howard, meanwhile, also scored in double figures (12) and secured seven rebounds.
“It was a hard-fought win,” Terps coach Brenda Frese said. “I thought Purdue just did a tremendous job making us really have to earn this.”
Walker-Kimbrough’s historic night began almost immediately, as the shifty winger stole the ball from the Boilermakers (16-6, 7-4) after they got an offensive rebound. She converted the layup on the other end on the Terps’ first possession.
The 5-foot-11 junior scored the team’s first 11 points, but it was Confroy’s mid-range jumper in transition that made the score 13-4 and forced Purdue to call timeout a little more than five minutes into the contest.
Still, the Boilermakers stayed close early on, mostly due to the Terps’ internal miscues. Frese’s team shot 8-for-11 from the field (72.7 percent) in the opening 10 minutes but ended the period with a two-point lead. The Terps also committed seven turnovers — they average a little more than 15 giveaways per game — and made one of their four foul shots.
In a first half that included 22 combined turnovers, the Terps were able to extend the lead to 41-28 before intermission thanks to Walker-Kimbrough. The Aliquippa, Pennsylvania, native added 13 points in the second frame to reach 24 points.
Walker-Kimbrough shot 11-for-14 from the field over the opening two periods, making as many field goals as Purdue did as a team, and the Terps went into halftime with a 13-point lead.
As she continued her scoring tear in the second half, Purdue found ways to hang around. The Boilermakers grabbed 11 offensive rebounds and forced the Terps into 16 turnovers.
Even with Walker-Kimbrough’s scoring total at 36 with 6:48 to go, guard April Wilson drilled a 3-pointer to pull Purdue within seven.
Frese praised the Boilermakers’ fight at the postgame press conference, crediting their toughness and tenacity while highlighting their aggressiveness on the glass — the Terps, who lead the country in rebounding margin, outrebounded the Boilermakers by 28-25.
Moments later, though, the veteran coach acknowledged a player’s performance that trumped all of those factors.
“Fortunately for us, we had Shatori Walker-Kimbrough,” Frese said. “And just to be able to see that kind of night. I mean, they’re rare in our sport to be able to see. She was just clicking on all cylinders.”
