The Maryland women’s basketball team was cruising past Glenville State in an exhibition on Oct. 29 when guard Ieshia Small grabbed a defensive rebound and sprung a fast break with under three minutes remaining in the third quarter.
Small moved the ball up the court to guard Kaila Charles and forward Stephanie Jones, who passed back-and-forth to deceive a Pioneer defender. Charles had the final touch, laying the ball up and laughing with Jones as they backtracked on defense.
After losing several key members of last season’s team to graduation and transfer, the Terps are searching for more leadership, some of which Jones and Charles displayed. Center Brionna Jones and guards Shatori Walker-Kimbrough and Destiny Slocum, who accounted for more than half the team’s scoring last season, have departed.
Charles is one of two returning starters from last season, while Stephanie Jones averaged 9.1 minutes per game, coming back from an ACL injury suffered in high school. Regardless of their lack of time together on the court prior to this season, the pair displayed strong chemistry against the Pioneers, cohesion the Terps hope continues in meaningful games.
The connections on the court grew when the team participated in the World University Games in Taiwan this past summer.
“[Taiwan] allowed us chemistry, learning how to play with each other,” Charles said. “Everybody is going to have to play and step up at some point. Just keeping that glue and chemistry is going to help us.”
The Terps lost five players from a 32-3 team that won the Big Ten title before Oregon bounced it from the NCAA tournament’s Sweet 16. In Taiwan, though, the Terps finished 5-1 against squads consisting of some of the top players worldwide.
“We’re just ready to practice every day, hard and intensified,” guard Channise Lewis said. “Coach [Brenda Frese] has really intensified our practices since we’ve been here, since we came back from Taiwan.”
Frese said the participation in Taiwan has the Terps ahead of their usual preseason schedule. The Terps have been practicing in several different situations while tuning their bonds, she said.
Guard Blair Watson averaged 22.5 points between the team’s preseason exhibitions against Glenville State and Bowie State, including a 30-point performance in the latter. Charles said Watson has been “coming out of her shell” during the preseason.
Watson is pegged as one of the players, along with Charles, to pick up the slack on offense, and she isn’t too concerned with the added scoring responsibilities.
“The players that left are the players that left,” Watson said. “I don’t really think it takes anything away from our team. We’re still very strong and very versatile … we just have a very solid group here to work with.”
Frese has earmarked Charles — one of two returning starters alongside guard Kristen Confroy — as the team’s go-to player this season, along with Watson on offense.
Charles is relishing the role of a leader, and said it’s made her more vocal and confident. Watson said Frese is stressing that everybody has to be a leader, which has improved the team’s chemistry.
“I don’t have any concerns because I’m very confident in my teammates,” Charles said. “We’ve been working all summer. We went out to Taiwan and played against bigger post players, bigger guards and we held our own, so we’re just going to have to play Maryland basketball.”
