Maryland women’s basketball could never find its shooting groove against Indiana on Sunday afternoon.
The Terps made just one of their first six shots and finished with a 28.4 shooting percentage, their second-lowest of the season. They lost on the road, 71-54.
Maryland has now lost four straight to the Hoosiers and hasn’t beaten them in Assembly Hall since 2020.
The Terps’ seeding in the Big Ten Tournament depends on the result of tonight’s Michigan vs. Purdue game. If the Boilermakers win, Maryland will be the No. 7 seed, but if the Wolverines win, they will drop to No. 8.
The Terps will have a bye in the tournament no matter what. Its postseason journey will start on Mar. 7 in Minneapolis.
“You gotta throw this one away and forget about it and come out better in the Big Ten Tournament,” coach Brenda Frese said.
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Indiana and Maryland last met on Jan. 31. The Hoosiers beat the Terps by 14 with Shyanne Sellers sidelined by injury. This time around, Sellers played and scored 11, but Maryland was without Lavender Briggs, who’s out for the season with a knee injury.
Indiana, meanwhile, recently returned an offensive threat to their starting lineup in Sydney Parrish. She gives the Hoosiers five starters averaging double-digit points.
Parrish started the game with a layup, the first of six straight Indiana makes. Meanwhile, Maryland shot just 1-for-6 and went down 14 points early.
“I feel like we didn’t disrupt as much as we needed to to make them feel uncomfortable,” Sellers said. “I feel like the times we did disrupt, good things happened: turnovers, charges, whatever the case may be.”
Frese called a timeout and Maryland found its footing. Jakia Brown-Turner knocked down a three to kickstart a 12-0 run.
The Terps thrived off offensive rebounds — they grabbed four and scored seven second-chance points in the opening frame
But Indiana proved too powerful. The home squad’s ballooned as high as 21 in the second quarter thanks to its potent inside-out game.
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Yarden Garzon and Sara Scalia combined for seven three-pointers and 26 points in the first half while Mackenzie Holmes shot a perfect 4-for-4. Scalia led Indiana with 19 points. Garzon added 17.
“Holmes is an All-American on the inside and [they] have so many shooters to be able to spread the floor,” Frese said.
The Hoosiers’ offensive versatility scrambled the Terps’ defense as they struggled to limit all the ways their opponents could score. Indiana had a balanced offense, scoring 28 points in the paint and 24 from behind the arc.
Maryland, on the other hand, had little offensive success. Its stars struggled. Sellers shot 3-for-13. Brown-Turner scored a team-high 15 but went 5-for-17.
The Terps made just 13 of 35 layup attempts, an issue Sellers and Brown-Turner pointed to.
“I feel like making layups, that would’ve helped the bleeding a little bit,” Sellers said.
Bri McDaniel started slow, shooting 0-for-8 in the first half and finished 4-of-19.
Holmes exited the game at the end of the third quarter with an injury and Garzon and Chloe Moore-McNeil combined for just 12 fourth-quarter minutes due to foul trouble.
It didn’t matter.
Maryland shot 18.8 percent in the final quarter and made no real comeback, once again solidifying the gap between this year’s team and the Big Ten’s best.
