Maryland women’s basketball remained No. 9 in the AP Top 25 released Monday, and forward Shakira Austin earned her fifth Big Ten Freshman of the Week honor of the season.

The Terps scored a pair of victories last week, dispatching Nebraska, 81-63, and Michigan, 83-69, to improve to 15-1 overall and 4-1 in conference play.

In both contests, Maryland found itself in a second-half struggle and used late-game runs to pull away and secure comfortable victories. Against the Huskers, the Terps utilized a 12-2 third-quarter blitz for the win, and against the Wolverines, they went on a 22-6 run after trailing late in the third quarter.

[Read more: Brenda Frese “never got into coaching for wins.” Now, she has 500 of them.]

Austin, meanwhile, averaged 10 points, 12.5 rebounds and 4.0 blocks in the two games, and the 6-foot-5 freshman stepped up in crunch time of both contests.

Before halftime against Nebraska, Maryland was struggling to box out and end possessions against a scrappy Huskers squad, and Austin came up big on the glass in the second half. She grabbed six rebounds in seven second-half minutes, and the Terps limited Nebraska to just five offensive boards in the final 20 minutes.

[Read more: No. 9 Maryland women’s basketball uses another late run to put away Michigan, 83-69]

But Austin’s best performance of the week was still to come.

The talented rim protector nearly notched a triple-double with 13 points, 15 boards and seven blocks in 28 minutes against Michigan on Saturday.

The performance was Austin’s highest block total since matching the single-game school record with eight rejections against Delaware on Dec. 20. She only had six blocks in Maryland’s first four conference games combined.

For the first time this year, six Big Ten teams were ranked in the AP poll.

Rutgers, which handed the Terps their only loss of the season Dec. 31, debuted tied for No. 20. The Scarlet Knights currently sit atop the conference standings at 5-0.

Michigan State (No. 17), Iowa (No. 22), Minnesota (No. 23) and Indiana (No. 25) all remained in the poll. It’s the first time this season the Spartans are the second-highest ranked Big Ten squad behind the Terps.

Maryland has tightened up its play since being upset by Rutgers, and the Terps have another opportunity to showcase their growth with a difficult road battle against Michigan State (12-3, 2-2 Big Ten) on Thursday.

CORRECTION: Due to a reporting error, a previous version of this article misstated how many points Austin scored against Michigan. She had 13 points, not 10. This article has been updated.