No. 7 Terps’ team effort dominates superstar Clark, No. 6 Hawkeyes
COLLEGE PARK — If Iowa women’s basketball has shown all season how good a team can be with a superstar, Maryland showed Tuesday night just how good a cohesive team can be.
The No. 7 Terps jumped out to a 20-point first-half lead over the No. 6 Hawkeyes — and National Player of the Year contender Caitlin Clark — at Xfinity Center on their way to a lopsided 96-68 win. Maryland hit a season-high 14 3-pointers (shooting 53.8% from deep) as Brinae Alexander went 6-for-9 from 3-point range for a season-high 24 points.
With the dominant win, Maryland (23-5, 14-3 Big Ten) tied Iowa (22-6, 14-3) for second in the conference, behind No. 2 Indiana. The Terps have won 10 of their past 11, with the lone loss in that span coming at Iowa earlier this month.
In that game Feb. 2, Clark poured in 42 points. But on Tuesday night, Maryland guard Lavender Briggs stayed what felt like inches Clark for much of the night as the Terps frustrated one of the nation’s
leading scorers with various zone looks, including a box-and-one. Clark entered averaging 27.3 points and 8.3 assists per game but finished with just 18 points, her second-lowest total of the season.
Iowa’s second-leading scorer, Monika Czinano, entered Tuesday averaging 17.8 points per game but finished with just four. Maryland guard Shyanne Sellers said the Terps’ strategy was to monitor those two.
“We know that Monica and Caitlin take most of their shots, so limiting their touches was really vital,” she said. “Everyone else, they can beat us.”
Clark is a singular force and perhaps the greatest show in college hoops. Perhaps the top one-on-one player in the country and with just about unlimited shooting range,
the junior also leads the nation in assists. But the Terps handed the Hawkeyes their largest loss in the three years Clark has been in college.
“I was chasing her around all over the court, picking her up full court and it was really just my focus to force her to the right because she likes to do everything going left,” Briggs said, “and I was just able to keep her out of the game.”
Maryland lost five of its top six scorers from last year’s team to graduation and transfer and started this year with a rotation half composed of newbies. But that returner, Diamond Miller, is a top WNBA prospect and a couple of other returners, like Sellers, have combined with four transfers, like Briggs, to all but solidify Maryland as an NCAA Tournament host.
The Terps, perennially a strong team, remain one of the nation’s best and are on pace to be selected as a No. 2 seed.
“[We’re] peaking at the right time going into the tournament,” coach Brenda Frese said.
Tuesday’s game, the Terps’ final this regular season in College Park, began at a fast and furious pace with the teams exchanging quick possessions and 3-point tries. But in the second quarter, Iowa — which leads the nation in scoring and the conference in 3-point makes — couldn’t keep pace with Maryland’s barrage from deep. In the first half, four Terps hit multiple 3s.
“The second quarter is what really defined this game, in my opinion,” said Iowa coach Lisa Bluder, who said the Terps did a better job defending Clark than any other team has this season.
During the pivotal second quarter, the Terps were without their best player, Miller — who sat after committing her second foul with more than nine minutes remaining before half — while Iowa still had its best player, Clark, for the whole period.
With lineups composed mostly of players who had spent last season elsewhere, the Terps displayed cohesion and balance by swiftly and smartly moving the ball around Iowa’s zone and knocking down outside shots. Frese called the quarter a “thing of beauty.”
“Her teammates just took over,” she said. “And that’s the sign of a really good team, when — Diamond’s carried this team a lot of games and [for her teammates] to continue to step up in her absence was huge.”
By the time Alexander hit her fourth 3-pointer of the quarter to give Maryland a 44-24 lead with 3:56 remaining before half, all Bluder could do was throw up her arms at her team. An announced crowd of 9,065 leaped to its feet at that moment and for much of the quarter as the Terps outscored the Hawkeyes 27-8.
In addition to Alexander’s 24, three other Terps scored in double digits: Briggs had 19, Sellers contributed 17 and Miller finished
with 16. Sellers also added 10 rebounds and 7 assists.
Maryland will next travel to No. 16 Ohio State on Friday for their final regular-season game before beginning the Big Ten Tournament in Minneapolis next week.
The win gave the Terps their fourth over a top-10 team this season (Notre Dame, UConn, Ohio State and Iowa), tying for the program’s most since 1978-79.
The Big Ten has five of the top 16 teams in the country, which has made the Terps’ schedule especially challenging. But they
also faced a difficult nonconference slate, which Frese pointed out was designed to for an experienced team, since Maryland expected to return more than one starter. Instead, they lost key players, like Angel Reese and Ashley Owusu, to transfer, and had to recalibrate to remain one of the nation’s best teams.
“It was pretty daunting in the spring,” Frese said. “But to see the right pieces come together and the fit and them to buy into a whole new system, it’s been pretty incredible.”