Terrapins women’s basketball coach Brenda Frese had a quick chat with guard Brene Moseley before she subbed in midway through the first quarter of Saturday’s first-round NCAA Tournament game against Iona.
The veteran coach advised Moseley, whose 5.9 assists per game rank third in the Big Ten, to look for her offense more. The message translated to the court.
Her first shot clanked off the backboard and off the rim after she used a Euro step to get into the lane, but the conference’s Sixth Player of the Year used nearly the exact same move the next possession before floating the ball off the glass to put the Terps up 10.
That bucket marked the first two points of a 15-point outing for Moseley, who finished as the team’s second-leading scorer and helped the Terps secure a 74-58 win over the Gaels at Xfinity Center. When Frese’s team battles No. 7-seed Washington on Monday night for a spot in the Sweet Sixteen, it will hope to receive another solid performance from its spark plug off the bench.
“She’s so unselfish sometimes,” Frese said. “She wants to pass instead of score, so I continue to stay on her and let her know how much her scoring means to us.”
While Moseley trails only guard Shatori Walker-Kimbrough and center Brionna Jones in points per game at 11.5, her scoring production trailed off a bit during the second half of the Big Ten slate.
After scoring 17 points against Michigan State on Feb. 5, nine of which came from the free-throw line, Moseley scored seven points or fewer in five of her final seven regular-season games.
She tallied seven points on four shots in the Terps’ Big Ten quarterfinal win over Iowa but has since picked it up on the offensive end. There was the 15-point, five-assist outing against Northwestern. Then she hit double-digit scoring again (10 points) and dropped six dimes as her team defeated the Spartans again to claim its second straight conference tournament championship.
Saturday’s game proved more of the same for the Burtonsville native, as she shot 7 of 10 and had three assists in 20 minutes of action. When Moseley was on the floor, the Terps outscored Iona by 29.
“That was a big thing for Bones, and also Tierney [Pfirman] coming off the bench,” Walker-Kimbrough said. “Their scoring ability and just being able to send waves at the opposing teams and just wearing them out.”
Moseley did most of her damage when the rest of the Terps offense cooled off in the second quarter. In a span of 35 seconds, the 5-foot-7 redshirt senior used a crossover to create her own midrange jumper, poked the ball away from Gaels guard Marina Lizarazu and converted a wide-open layup on the other end.
After putting up 26 in the opening frame, the Terps scored 16 points in the second period. Seven of those came from Moseley, who said her shots came from playing within the flow of the game. She also credited her teammates for getting her open looks.
Yet when guard Philecia Gilmore drilled her seventh 3-pointer early in the fourth quarter to bring Iona within seven — the Gaels’ smallest deficit since eight seconds into the second frame — it appeared Moseley was determined to end Iona’s 7-0 run.
Moments later, Moseley took the shot clock down to 10 seconds before getting into the lane and converting a difficult midrange jumper. She gave the ball away the next possession but then put home another two-pointer to put the Terps back up by double digits.
Moseley made one more jumper before the final buzzer sounded on the Terps’ 16-point win, meaning she’ll get to play at Xfinity Center one last time Monday night.
“You saw late-game,” Frese said. “She wanted the moment.”
