Terps overcome foul trouble to top No. 13 Wolverines
COLLEGE PARK — Fans of the Maryland women’s basketball program might wonder what life will look like after senior guard Diamond Miller graduates.
They caught a glimpse of that future a bit sooner than they wanted to.
With Miller lost late in the fourth quarter after picking up her fifth foul of the game, No. 10 Maryland barely hung on late in a tight 72-64 win against No. 13 Michigan in a key Big Ten matchup before an announced 5,602 at Xfinity Center.
Despite her late absence, Miller led all scorers with 23 points and added five steals, two rebounds and two assists. Senior shooting guard Lavender Briggs had 14 points and three rebounds off the bench, sophomore shooting guard Shyanne Sellers chipped in 13 points and five rebounds, and senior shooting guard Abby Meyers finished with 12 points and a career high-tying 11 rebounds.
The victory was the fourth in a row for Maryland (17-4, 8-2 Big Ten), which survived despite nearly squandering a 10-point lead after Miller fouled out with 2:19 left in regulation.
“We’ve got to keep Diamond in the game,” Meyers said. “She’s a scorer. She gets so many great opportunities on the offensive end. … When Diamond went out, it was, ‘Let’s defend as best as we can,’ because Coach [Brenda Frese] kept saying, ‘Defense was going to win.
Whatever happens on offense will happen. We’ve got to limit their fouls and limit their easy attempts.’ In the end, we pulled through.”
When Miller picked up her fourth foul of the game with 17.9 seconds left in the third quarter, the Wolverines took advantage of
her absence by opening the final period with five straight points to trim the deficit to 56-49. Miller returned with 6:29 left in regulation and helped the Terps re-establish a double-digit lead at 65-55.
But Miller was assessed her fifth foul with 2:17 remaining, and Michigan pulled to within 67-61 with 72 seconds left. Fortunately for the Terps, the Wolverines were forced to foul, and Sellers, Meyers and Briggs combined to convert five of six free throws to keep Michigan at bay.
Miller acknowledged that she could have avoided fouling out for the second time this season.
“Maybe I was a bit too aggressive,” she said. “I do remember some of the fouls, but just cleaning up the unnecessary fouls because some of those fouls were iffy. The fouls I can control, I’ve got to control. I was just playing hard and playing for my teammates.”
If there was one statistical factor that weighed heavily in Maryland’s favor, it was turnovers. Michigan committed 24 turnovers — its third-highest total of the season — and the Terps converted those miscues into 25 points.
“I thought we set the tone,” said Frese, whose team caused more than 20 turnovers for the fourth consecutive game. “When you look at forcing them into 24 turnovers, they have so many great players on that team that I thought defense helped us win this game.”
Wolverines coach Kim Barnes Arico said Maryland’s length proved disruptive.
“I think their press really wore us down,” she said. “For some of our younger kids, that was probably their first time they had faced — other than maybe Ohio State — that kind of pressure and that kind of length.”