Terps display their might in extending win streak to 5
COLLEGE PARK — Maryland women’s basketball hasn’t just been impressive during its current five-game winning streak. It has been overwhelming.
The Terps demonstrated their dominance once again by thumping visiting Penn State, 87-66, Monday night before an announced crowd of 1,585 at Xfinity Center.
Maryland, which improved to 18-4 overall and 9-2 in the Big Ten, led nearly the entire game, sprinting to a 21-7 advantage less than seven minutes into the game.
The Terps have spent most of their fivegame winning streak in the lead, trailing just 6:44 out of 200 total minutes in victories over Rutgers (80-56 on Jan. 15), Wisconsin (77-64 on Jan. 19), Nebraska (69-54 on Jan. 22), then-No. 13 Michigan (72-64 on Thursday) and now Penn State.
Senior shooting guard Abby Meyers scored a game-high 24 points, eclipsing her previous season-best of 23 scored in an 87-63 romp over Pittsburgh on Nov. 27.
The Princeton transfer also collected a team-high six rebounds.
Meyers was joined in double figures by fellow shooting guards Shyanne Sellers (15 points) and Diamond Miller (14). Sellers, a sophomore, added five rebounds and four assists; Miller, a senior, chipped in five rebounds and three assists.
The one statistic that is bound to please Maryland coach Brenda Frese is the number of assists. The team finished with 23 assists on 32 baskets. The total is one shy of its season-best set in the win over Rutgers.
The Terps also scored 31 points off the Nittany Lions’ 19 turnovers, got 26 bench points to Penn State’s 14, and outscored the Nittany Lions, 38-30, in the paint.
Maryland’s 13th consecutive win against the Nittany Lions began with graduate student power forward Alexa Williamson nailing a short jumper to give Penn State (12-10, 3-8) a 2-0 lead just 18 seconds into the first quarter.
That edge lasted all of 13 seconds before
Miller matched Williamson with a shortrange shot of her own. The Terps then used steals on back-to-back Nittany Lions possessions to fuel fastbreak layups for a 6-2 advantage.
Penn State managed to shave the deficit down to two at 9-7 with six minutes left in the quarter, but that launched a 12-0 spurt in a 1:42 span that Maryland employed to push the lead to 21-7.
Even after senior shooting guard Makenna Marisa’s layup at the 2:46 mark snapped a 3:14 Nittany Lion scoring drought, they did not score again for the rest of the quarter.
All totaled, the Terps closed out the period on a 20-2 run for a 29-9 lead.
Miller gave Maryland a slight scare when she jogged off the court and went straight to the locker room with 8:30 left in the second quarter after jostling for a defensive rebound.
But the team’s leader in points, rebounds, steals and blocks returned to the bench at the 6:35 mark and was re-inserted into the game 34 seconds later.
Marisa paced Penn State with 23 points, four assists and three rebounds, and senior shooting guard Taniyah Thompson contributed 17 points.
But as a team, the Nittany Lions shot 42.4% (25 of 59) compared to the Terps’ 53.3% success rate (32 of 60).