Shyanne Sellers scored 10 of Maryland women’s basketball’s 25 fourth-quarter points on Monday, the final two of which came on a pair of clutch free throws that extended the home lead to six with just seconds left.
A play later, Maryland’s star guard fell to the Xfinity Center floor in pain after an apparent leg injury, hobbling off the floor.
“I just fell right on it,” Sellers said. “I’m getting old, I can’t keep falling. I’ll be all right,” Sellers said.
Despite Sellers’ late exit, the No. 21 Terps mounted a second-quarter comeback and staved off the Wolverines to seal a 85-77 win on Monday. They broke a three-game home losing streak.
Michigan started its usual five-guard lineup, a vastly different look from Maryland’s (20-6, 10-5 Big Ten) last opponent. Nebraska’s size-heavy interior dominated possessions last Thursday.
The reduced size paid dividends for Maryland through the game’s opening minutes. The Terps’ first five made field goals came inside the paint, but they quickly went cold and ended the frame 6-for-16.
Christina Dalce, making her first start in more than two weeks, logged a layup and pair of rebounds to start. Kaylene Smikle added five first-quarter points, the latter two of which capped a 7-3 scoring blitz through the opening two and a half minutes.
“Utilizing the bounce, attacking, putting pressure on the rim is really important,” Saylor Poffenbarger said. “Coming out and attacking was definitely important for us.”
Then, Michigan’s Olivia Olson took over.
[Maryland women’s basketball’s frontcourt struggles were exposed against Nebraska]
The freshman guard — whose 16 points per game rank 11th in the Big Ten — led the attack through the remainder of the period, scoring 11 points. Olson finished with a game-high 26 points.
It forced four Maryland turnovers in a four-minute span, quickly translating defense to offense in the process. A third of the Wolverines’ (18-8, 9-6 Big Ten) 22 first-quarter points came off takeaways.
Michigan closed the frame on a 14-6 scoring run, capped by a buzzer-beating left block layup from Jordan Hobbs. The red-hot Wolverines extended their lead to double digits just minutes later, opening the second quarter with back-to-back triples from Syla Swords and Mila Holloway.
“They’re talented, they’re confident and they will outwork you,” coach Brenda Frese said. “It took [us] collectively to work through that.”
The Terps surged back midway through the period, trimming a game-high 10-point deficit to just two by the end of the first half.
Sellers assisted on a Poffenbarger 3-pointer midway through the second, becoming first player in Maryland women’s basketball program history to reach 1,500 points, 500 rebounds and 500 assists.
The senior guard provided six timely second-quarter points along with her record breaking dish. She poured in 18 points, six rebounds and 5 assists before her fourth quarter exit.
Early in the third quarter, Maryland used a full-court press to get its first lead since the opening minutes of the game. Sarah Te-Biasu took control through the remainder of the third quarter, scoring nine points on four shots.
[The Diamondback Sports Digest: Maryland basketball nears postseason play]
Te-Biasu finished with a team-high 21 points, her sixth double-digit total in the Terps’ last eight games.
An array of timely buckets by Olson, Swords and Yulia Grabovskaia combined for all of Michigan’s final 16 third-quarter points. The trio closed the road deficit to just one point by the 30-minute mark, making way for a pressure-filled fourth quarter.
Mir McLean, who played just a combined 15 minutes in Maryland’s last four games, nearly doubled that total Monday, logging 24 minutes — the most important of which coming late in the fourth quarter.
McLean drained a running layup with just over three minutes to go. Dalce delivered on the defensive end minutes later, rising through the lane to swat away a Michigan layup.
A 30-second shot clock violation ensued on the following possession, marking the Wolverines’ seventh — and most critical — turnover of the game.
The Terps’ defense shut out Michigan late, most notably from beyond the arc. The Wolverines shot 0-for-5 from three in the fourth quarter, converting on just two field goals in the final two and a half minutes.
“[Michigan] typically shoots the ball really well,” Poffenbarger said. “Just from the past couple games, we had to make [an] adjustment and dig in a little deeper … running them off the three-point line.”
