Maryland women’s basketball finished the 2023 Cancun Challenge with a 92-63 win over Massachusetts. The victory, the Terps’ first blowout since their season-opener against Harvard, highlighted a powerful transition offense and potential depth.
Maryland has won two straight games for the first time this season. Its domination started early.
The Terps took the lead almost immediately on a Brinae Alexander free throw.
But Maryland started the game 0-for-4 from the field, hinting at yet another slow start. Jakia Brown-Turner quelled those worries with the team’s first field goal more than two minutes into the game. She finished with a team-high 17 points, her most with the Terps.
Alexander then notched a pair of three-pointers that gave Maryland a commanding lead. The Terps finished the frame 7-for-15 from the field.
Maryland shot 50.8 percent from the field, their best mark since the win over Harvard.
“I thought we were a little bit more intentional of making a few more passes. I think we’ve grown with our offensive chemistry in these last two games,” coach Brenda Frese said.
[Maryland women’s basketball tops Green Bay, 68-59, in second game of Cancun Challenge]
Halfway through the first quarter, with her team up six, Frese pulled her starters and put in her bench lineup — sending out captain Faith Masonius along with two sophomores and two freshmen. It’s the first time Frese had done a five-player substitution.
That move symbolized the coach’s ability to get her young players much-needed experience after a challenging early season slate forced Frese to rely on veterans.
Maryland — facing an inferior team — ballooned its lead to 23 at the end of the first half. In the final minutes of the third quarter, Frese went to a lineup of freshmen and sophomore Bri McDaniel.
“We were really hoping that with the three games in three days that we were going to be able to spread the minutes around, especially [with] our younger players,” Frese said.
Emily Fisher, Summer Bostock and Hawa Doumbouya played the most minutes of their college career. Bostock scored her first points. Meanwhile, Fisher and Doumbouya set career highs, the former with eight points and the latter with four rebounds and two assists.
[Maryland women’s basketball’s offense sputters in 87-67 loss to No. 23 Washington State]
Walk-on freshmen Mary Sareen and Zen Nuako also saw their first minutes, with Sareen adding a jump shot in the final minute of the contest.
Maryland built its lead by forcing turnovers and translating them into points. Straight out of a UMass timeout midway through the second quarter, McDaniel swiped the ball from a Minutewoman and tossed it to Shyanne Sellers for a layup, giving the Terps a 17-point lead.
A minute later, McDaniel cut another UMass possession short with a steal, resulting in another three-pointer from Alexander.
UMass committed 18 first-half turnovers, more than its season average.
The Terps finished the game with a season-high 19 steals, led by Alexander, who set a new career-high with six. Maryland scored 42 points off those miscues.
“Our defense [focused on] getting up in the passing lanes, denying. When we deny, we force a lot of turnovers and that’s what we did today,” Brown-Turner said.
The Minutewomen pushed back in the third frame, shooting 69.2 percent from the field. However, unlike its disastrous second quarter against Washington State, which saw it squander a double-digit lead, Maryland maintained its advantage at around 20 points and won comfortably.
