Maryland women’s basketball team routs Minnesota, 110-77, to clinch Big Ten title
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Version 0 of 1. The four seniors on the sixth-ranked Maryland women’s basketball team took part in an emotional ceremony before their final home game early Sunday night. Coach Brenda Frese presented each player with a framed jersey, and they posed for pictures with family and friends minutes before tip-off against Minnesota. That short celebration, however, paled in comparison to what transpired following a 110-77 victory at Xfinity Center that delivered Maryland the Big Ten regular season championship for a second consecutive season. Players donned championship T-shirts and hats, rejoicing over an achievement that several weeks ago remained in doubt after getting swept by No. 5 Ohio State. But the Buckeyes closed the regular season with consecutive losses, opening the door for Maryland to claim the conference title outright with a triumph on Senior Day. The Terrapins (27-3, 16-2 Big Ten) did so in overpowering fashion thanks in large part to contributions from those seniors, including 29 points and 13 rebounds (both career highs) from forward Tierney Pfirman. “This one’s special. This one I’m going to remember for a long time,” said Frese, who started all the seniors plus junior Shatori Walker-Kimbrough. “You couldn’t have scripted it any better for our seniors, to be able to send them out in a game of this fashion. Picture-perfect game, I thought, in terms of how we were able to dominate, clicking on all cylinders. [The seniors] set the tone with their energy.” [ Terrapins Insider: Latest Maryland news ] Senior point guard Chloe Pavlech had 12 points and eight assists, and Brene Moseley, a redshirt senior, got the second start of her career in finishing with seven points, eight assists and seven rebounds. The first-team All-Met as a junior at Paint Branch High has overcome anterior cruciate ligament tears in each knee to become one of the Terrapins’ most dependable reserves the past three seasons. Maryland won its sixth in a row and for the 15th time in 16 games to secure the No. 1 seed in the Big Ten tournament that begins Wednesday in Indianapolis. The Terrapins do not play until Friday as they seek their second straight Big Ten tournament title. The Terrapins shot 57 percent against Minnesota and had a season-high 31 assists on 46 field goals. They outscored the Golden Gophers 56-18 in the paint and had a 53-23 rebounding margin. Maryland also kept Minnesota guard Rachel Banham mostly in check. The redshirt senior entered second in Division I in scoring (27.8) and finished with 26 points, though many came with the outcome well in hand. Ahead by 18 at halftime, Maryland pushed the lead to 68-41 with 5 minutes 23 seconds left in the third quarter. Walker-Kimbrough and sophomore guard Kristen Confroy made three-pointers in the run, and Minnesota (19-10, 11-7) got no closer than 26 the rest of the way in losing for the third time in four games. “Coming into this game, we all sort of talked about how we wanted to be Big Ten champions again,” Pavlech said. “Obviously this game meant a lot to the seniors and a lot to our team.” Maryland took a 39-25 lead midway through the second quarter on a 14-2 flurry that included three field goals, including a three-point play, from junior center Brionna Jones (24 points). Pfirman made a jumper, and Moseley sank a spinning floater in the lane while getting fouled. She made the bonus, and Walker-Kimbrough (19 points, 11 rebounds) added two more free throws. Walker-Kimbrough’s two foul shots minutes later began a stretch of nine consecutive points for the Terrapins, whose largest lead of the first half reached 52-32 on Moseley’s layup with 1:24 to go until intermission. About all that kept Maryland from an even larger cushion was missing 11 of 12 three-pointers in the first half. The Terrapins went 5 for 8 (63 percent) from beyond the arc in the second half, with Pfirman going 2 for 2 in the third quarter. “Without my teammates, I wouldn’t have been able to do it,” Pfirman said of her performance, which included 12-for-19 shooting in addition to two steals and an assist. “Them giving me the confidence to keep shooting the ball even when it wasn’t going in just makes you feel good. Just to have the outcome that I did, I couldn’t do it without them.” |