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No. 14 Maryland women’s basketball has caught fire at the perfect time.
At the end of January, Maryland had a losing Big Ten record. The outlook on the season was bleak. But since then, the Terps have displayed their resilience while putting together a five-game winning streak.
That five-game streak turned to six on Wednesday against Northwestern. Maryland clinched a first-round bye in the Big Ten Tournament with a 79-57 win over the Wildcats.
The Terps are currently sixth in the Big Ten standings. They are still in contention for a double-bye — if they beat No. 8 Michigan on Sunday and both Ohio State and Minnesota lose out. They are likely to begin their postseason next Thursday, but conference seeding won’t be finalized until after Sunday’s game.
It remains to be seen whether Wednesday was Maryland’s final home game of the season. In the NCAA Tournament, the 16 highest-ranked teams host the first and second rounds — the Terps rank No. 14 in the NET, WAB and AP poll. If those rankings hold, Xfinity Center will likely be a host arena.
Coming from a point where this postseason position seemed unlikely, this recent run has flipped the season on its head.
The overarching theme of Maryland’s win streak has been dominance. With the exception of the one-point win over Ohio State, every game has been by double digits.
Wednesday was no exception, as the Terps led wire to wire. Despite not completely pulling away until late, they were clearly the better team.
There weren’t any clear poor areas, but Maryland took some time to pull away in the first half. Its defense gave it a boost, forcing 10 first-half turnovers to build a 13-point lead heading into halftime.
Oluchi Okananwa led the charge Wednesday with a game that has become typical for her this season. She scored 25 points on 11-of-20 shooting, once again leading Maryland in scoring.
The junior has been the driving force of Maryland’s success this season and continues to stay hot heading into the home stretch. The Terps will go as far as Okananwa leads them, and her 17.7 points per game this season have led them to a 23-6 record.
The rest of the lineup fed off Okananwa’s lead offensively: Maryland had eight players score, and four of them logged double-figure points.
Throughout the win streak, the Terps have had a balanced scoring attack, and that trend continued on Wednesday.
Maryland’s performance was the mold of how it needs to play moving forward — a dominant full-team dominant effort that has become consistent throughout the win streak.
Three things to know
1. Williams stepped up. With Isi Ozzy-Momodu sidelined for a second consecutive game with a lower-leg injury, the Terps looked for other size options. They started Mir McLean for the second consecutive game and rotated her with Breanna Williams.
Williams has seen sporadic minutes throughout the season, but has rarely received first quarter minutes. But she was the first off the bench on Wednesday and scored four early points. She finished with nine points in the win.
2. Poffenbarger on the boards. Saylor Poffenbarger once again led the Terps in rebounds with 13 — her second-highest total of the season. She has been Maryland’s top facilitator, grabbing boards and turning it into offense on the other end. She averages 7.1 rebounds per game this season.
3. Season-low in turnovers. The Terps turned the ball over six times on Wednesday, their lowest total in any game this season. Ball control issues have lingered throughout the season, but they’ve cleaned it up as of late.
Heading into the postseason, eliminating the turnover bug can be very impactful.