Turnovers have plagued the Terrapins women’s basketball team this past week, and they proved to be an issue again early on against Michigan on Wednesday night.
After giving the ball away at least 20 times in each of their past three contests, the Terps committed eight turnovers in the first quarter. At one point, guard Brene Moseley committed three turnovers in a span of four possessions. Her last giveaway was an offensive foul, prompting coach Brenda Frese to send her shifty point guard to the bench.
The Terps’ problems persisted into the next frame — they totaled 10 giveaways by the 8:36 mark of the second quarter — but they cut down on the miscues from then on to secure a 76-56 win at Xfinity Center.
Frese’s squad finished with 15 giveaways, a shade below its season average, after a sloppy start. With the extra possessions down the stretch, the Terps pounded the ball inside to centers Brionna Jones and Malina Howard, who combined for 26 points. Guards Kristen Confroy and Moseley provided the perimeter scoring with 14 and 13 points, respectively.
“I wish I could say what happened to start, because I thought we had a great practice leading up to it,” Frese said. “They were a lot more aggressive, and we just made some plays that we’ve got to start being able to read a little bit better out of what the defense is doing to us.”
Michigan coach Kim Barnes Arico had her team press from the opening tip. She thought the bigger Terps would likely pound the ball inside if they broke the pressure, but Arico insisted on speeding the Terps up and taking the nation’s fourth-best scoring attack out of its traditional half-court sets.
The aggressiveness from the Wolverines paid off, as they scored six points off eight Terps turnovers in the opening frame.
Even when the Terps (24-3, 13-2 Big Ten) were able to break through Michigan’s (15-11, 7-8) swarming defense and put up a shot, they were ineffective. The Terps scored 10 points on 4-for-14 shooting in the quarter, and guard Shatori Walker-Kimbrough, the team’s leading scorer at 19.7 points per game, missed her only attempt.
The turnovers dwindled in the second period, yet the Terps couldn’t upstage the Wolverines by intermission, going into the half with a one-point deficit. Frese’s team trailed at the break in two other games this season, with both contests ending in defeats.
“We knew Kim and her teams are really well coached and really aggressive, and they showed that I thought in the first half. A lot of plays in the first half that were extremely disappointing to be able to see.”
But when Michigan struggled to score midway through the third quarter, the team couldn’t set up its full-court pressure.
The Terps capitalized.
Howard’s layup to put her team up four was the first of four straight baskets that amounted to a 9-0 run, and the Terps held Michigan to 12 points in the frame.
“In the second half, we couldn’t score as well ’cause we couldn’t get stops,” Arico said. “And then we couldn’t score and we couldn’t put the pressure on as much.”
Added Confroy: “Once we started taking care of the ball and started playing Maryland basketball, making the right reads, the game started to open up.”
The Wolverines dominated in turnover margin, but both teams finished with 15 giveaways. In fact, the Terps scored more points off turnovers (12).
The Terps’ ability to take care of the ball allowed them to pound it inside to Jones, who finished with a game-high 20 points on 8-for-10 shooting.
It took a while to fix the turnovers woes, but the Terps were still able to come away with their 13th conference win.
“I don’t think we responded well at first, but I think that that’s the great thing about us: We bounce back and we respond,” Howard said. “The second half just shows that we can take of the ball.”
