No. 8 Maryland women’s basketball flattens Rutgers, 88-41

PISCATAWAY, N.J. — No. 8 Maryland women’s basketball came into Thursday’s game against Rutgers shooting 33.5% from beyond the arc. 

The Terps had been solid from deep all season, but they hadn’t boasted a performance quite like they did in Piscataway. It was a 3-point barrage. 

Maryland ultimately made a season-high 16 3-pointers en route to a 88-41 victory over the Scarlet Knights.

Six different Terps connected from deep; they made six more 3-pointers than any other game this season and their most in four seasons. 

Yarden Garzon shot a perfect 6-of-6 from deep, leading Maryland with 18 points. 

“Gosh, when you look at Yarden’s line and just 100% from the 3-point line,” head coach Brenda Frese said. “We have so many weapons on this team that it was great to be able to kind of finally see it all connect together.”

Freshman guard Rainey Welson headed into the contest having made just two 3-pointers on the season. She broke out from range Thursday, making four 3-pointers and doubling her previous total. Fellow freshman Addi Mack was also lights out from deep, shooting 3-of-5.

“It felt amazing just to see the ball go in,” Welson said. “My coaches and my teammates have been telling me to keep shooting… if you keep shooting, the stats will eventually even out.”

Maryland’s 3-point shooting outdid Rutgers entirely from the field. The Scarlet Knights made 11 total shots and shot 20%, while the Terps made 16 3-pointers and shot 64%. 

The 3-point dominance started out of the gate. The Terps made shots from downtown on each of their first three possessions and shot 5-of-6 from deep in the first quarter. 

“Anytime you can start the game 5-for-5 from the 3-point line with five different players scoring it, I thought we set the tone,” Frese said.

Oluchi Okananwa came into Thursday’s contest needing 19 points to reach 1,000 career points, but she failed to reach that mark. She committed five turnovers and made a myriad of mistakes —- stepping out of bounds, traveling and offensive fouls. 

Thursday seemed more like a nonconference matchup, and it was a stark contrast to its road struggles coming in. In Maryland’s previous two road games, it battled to a double-overtime win over Minnesota and fell to Illinois.

In the first half, Rutgers made four field goals to Maryland’s seven 3-pointers. Over a span of 3:32 toward the end of the second quarter, the Terps went on an 8-0 run exclusively from free throws. 

This barrage continued in the second half. The Terps peppered the Scarlet Knights on both sides of the ball, building a third-quarter lead before getting into some foul trouble in the fourth frame. Maryland’s fast-paced transition put Rutgers in double-digit deficits in each of the first three quarters. 

“Once you’re very intentional about something and you see the results out there. It’s always good to see and I hope we will keep doing that,” Garzon said of Maryland’s transition. 

The Terps held Rutgers to 43 points — its lowest total in Big Ten play since 2017. And while the Terps’ schedule gets more difficult moving forward, its 3-point shooting was a positive sign for things to come.

Three things to know

1. It gets harder moving forward. The road ahead only gets more difficult after the Terps dominated Rutgers on Thursday. Maryland will face ranked opponents in each of its next five games in the meat of its conference schedule. 

“We all know the Big Ten is the best conference in the country,” Garzon said. “There are so many teams, so many elite players and so many great coaches out there.”

2. Ozzy-Momodu stacking double-doubles. Isimenme Ozzy-Momodu followed up her 10-point, 15-rebound double-double on Sunday with another strong performance in Piscataway. She was once again a key force in the paint, scoring 10 points and recording 12 boards. 

3. Garzon’s shoe issue.In the third quarter, Yarden Garzon lost one of her shoes. She tried to put it on but couldn’t, playing an entire defensive possession with one shoe on. The Terps got a stop before Poffenbarger tried to pass the ball to Garzon in transition, but the Terps turned it over because she didn’t have a shoe.

“I just threw it away. I tried to put it on, I couldn’t do it fast enough,” Garzon said. “Well, let’s play defense like that.”