Maryland women’s basketball coach Brenda Frese calls Oluchi Okananwa the head of the snake.
Besides leading her team in points, steals, and offensive rebounds, Okananwa’s athleticism and speed are overwhelming. Indiana, like many of the Terps’ previous opponents, fell to her dominance Sunday in Maryland’s 82-67 win at Xfinity Center.
Okananwa scored a career-high 34 points six days after setting a career-best mark of 28. The junior guard, who averages 16.1 points, 5.1 rebounds and 2.1 assists, posted the most points by a Maryland player this season on 12 of 22 shooting.
“Just the moment I got down here, especially with my offensive game … I was given a lot more freedom than I have had in my college career,” Okananwa said. “I think coach and the coaching staff, they’ve just done an amazing job of nurturing that, and just watch me kind of blossom into this new, more offensive, aggressive player.”
Maryland was coming off its first loss of the season, a 73-70 defeat to Illinois in Champaign. The Illini gave the Terps their first moment of adversity after they had flown through the opening two months undefeated.
[Oluchi Okananwa scores career-high as Maryland women’s basketball destroys Wisconsin, 97-59]
“I feel like in the Illinois game we weren’t really there, but we had a team talk, and we had to regather ourselves,” Isimenme Ozzy-Momodu said.
In addition to Okananwa’s performance, the Terps had a piece of Indiana on their side.
Yarden Garzon, a former Hoosier, played three seasons under head coach Teri Moren before transferring to Maryland. Garzon faced five players she had previously played with on Sunday.
Garzon led Indiana in scoring in the 2024-2025 season and left Bloomington with 220 three-pointers, a program all-time high. She has carried that dominance to College Park, leading the Terps in triples through more than two months. She sank two threes Sunday, making up most of her eight total points.
“It is kind of special to play against the team that you were playing for for three years, but once the ball is out there, it’s a game no matter who is playing against you,” Garzon said. “So just trying to focus and do what I need to for my team.”
Okananwa, tasked with guarding Indiana leading scorer Shay Ciezki, held the senior guard to 17 points, six below her season average.
“I thought we really tuned in a lot more on the defensive end. We made life difficult. Shay only got nine shots up compared to what she’s been having to do,” Frese said. “I thought defensively, we were really locked in tonight and played the right way.”
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Okananwa is a prime example of Maryland’s steal and score mentality. Her three steals on Sunday contributed to her career-high performance, moving the ball coast to coast on multiple occasions.
It wasn’t just her, though. The Terps forced 21 Indiana turnovers in the first half, adding to their 324-season total of forced turnovers. Their offense capitalized on their defensive prowess, with 25 points off the giveaways.
After leading by seven points at halftime, Maryland outscored the Hoosiers by eight after the break.
The win came alongside Maryland celebrating the 20th anniversary of its 2006 National Championship team, with past Terp champions in attendance at Xfinity Center.
“I think it’s pretty cool to be in this atmosphere and to be able to interact with those same ladies, because they’re chasing a goal that every single one of us is chasing as well,” Okananwa said. “To be able to honor that kind of gives us an extra fuel and extra boost of reminding us who we’re playing for.”
