The Terrapins women’s basketball team played a number of unfamiliar foes its first season in the Big Ten a year ago, but it didn’t hinder its success.
En route to their second straight Final Four, the Terps finished 18-0 in their new conference. They claimed the regular-season title before holding off Ohio State to win the conference tournament championship.
The No. 6 Terps’ quest for a second Big Ten crown began Wednesday afternoon in a road game against Illinois, and the contest ended on a high note. Guard Kristen Confroy scored a career high in points and center Brionna Jones secured a career high in rebounds to help the Terps secure a 79-63 win over the Fighting Illini for their 31st straight win against a Big Ten squad.
“We came out in the first half really sluggish,” coach Brenda Frese said. “But, we were able to kind of adjust at halftime, and I thought we got to playing how we know how to play. So we were a lot more aggressive, we were able to get a lot on the glass and kind of start slowing down.”
Confroy, who has started the past three games, led the Terps with 17 points, including 3-for-5 shooting from behind the arc. Down low, Jones pulled down 19 boards to go along with her 16-point performance.
The Terps emulated Jones’ dominance inside, as they outrebounded the Fighting Illini, 55-26. And their 21 second-chance points helped Frese’s team offset its 43 percent field-goal percentage.
“That’s something that we pride ourselves on,” Frese said. “We cleaned up the glass and were really dominant in that area. But I think when you have games when you’re maybe not shooting the ball for us — this was kind of our lowest shooting percentage — you got to be able to find other ways to impact a game.”
But their first conference win of the season didn’t come without some early struggles.
Guard Shatori Walker-Kimbrough, the team’s leading scorer entering the game at 18.8 points per contest, picked up her second foul on a charge, forcing her to the bench about four minutes in. As a team, the Terps (12-1, 1-0 Big Ten) made two shots over the final five minutes of the first quarter.
So after starting the game on an 8-0 run, the nation’s second-highest scoring team (89.1 points per game) produced 14 points, committed seven turnovers and was tied with the Fighting Illini (7-5, 0-1) after 10 minutes.
At halftime, the Terps focused on limiting those giveaways.
“I think just settling in and taking care of the basketball,” Confroy said. “We lose a lot of opportunities to take advantage of the many weapons we have on offense. So settling in, taking care of the ball and taking smart shots offensively, as well as getting stops on defense.”
The Terps offense erupted for 25 points in the second frame, largely because of the play of Jones and guard Brene Moseley. The duo combined to score 21 points in the quarter, helping their team to a seven-point advantage at intermission.
“We just look to come out every night, and we just work inside out,” Jones said. “We start in early and then work it out and try to get shots and get it back in if it’s open.”
The Illini opened the third period with a bucket, but the Terps scored the next 11 points, including two 3-pointers from Confroy, to push the lead out to 16 points. From that point forward, the closest the Fighting Illini got was 50-39.
“They did a really nice job…early collapsing on Bri, and so that kind of took us some time to be able to work through,” Frese said. “But I thought we were able to share the basketball really well, especially out of the second half.”
