No. 14 Maryland women’s basketball was outmatched on Saturday as it closed out the regular season with an 87-69 defeat at No. 8 Michigan.
With the Big Ten and NCAA Tournaments to come, Saturday was a reality check for the Terps, who had won six in a row.
Here are three takeaways from the loss.
The Terps committed too many turnovers
Coming into Saturday’s game with the Wolverines, head coach Brenda Frese made it clear that the Terps needed to limit their turnovers like they did against Northwestern — they recorded just six against the Wildcats.
But Maryland had a complete opposite performance on Saturday, committing 21 turnovers – its most in conference play and second-most all season.
What changed? Firstly, the opponent.
Michigan came into Saturday leading the Big Ten with 10.6 steals per game during conference play. It had nine steals against Maryland and still took complete advantage of turnovers.
“Points off turnovers were really the story of the game,” Frese said. “16-0 at halftime and then 32-13 for the game.”
The Terps didn’t do themselves any favors with ball security. Too many passes sailed out of bounds, and turnovers were often unforced.
Maryland took a major step back after making great progress in ball control. Headed into March, it can’t afford to have another performance like this.
“Where we’ve got to clean up our turnovers are the unforced ones,” Frese said. “Clearly their press gave us problems, but it was like when we cut it to 10, then they had some really impactful plays of unforced turnovers by us… I can think about a five or six that were unforced.”
First half foul trouble
Where turnovers didn’t beat the Terps, fouls did — especially in the first half.
The game was won before the break; the Terps played relatively on par with the Wolverines in the second half, but it was too late. Although Michigan committed more fouls, Maryland’s fouls were an integral part of the loss.
Oluchi Okananwa committed three fouls before the break. She didn’t commit a foul for the rest of the game, but it certainly threw Maryland’s game off.
“Coach never wants me to take my intensity down, especially when I’m in foul trouble,” Okananwa said.
Even if Okananwa’s intensity doesn’t change, Maryland’s utilization of her does. Throughout this season, whenever Maryland has needed a bucket, she has gotten it.
But when Okananwa is in foul trouble, she’s not always on the court to get those buckets. If her intensity doesn’t change, her aggressiveness does. She’s one of Maryland’s best defenders.
She didn’t have a bad game, but Maryland needed more from her. She led the Terps with 19 points and had four rebounds, but also four turnovers.
“It’s just playing smart and really playing disciplined, because I know I had to be out there on the court for my team,” Okananwa said.
It wasn’t just her. Yarden Garzon committed two first half fouls and became limited, losing her touch — after starting 3-of-3 from deep, she finished 4-of-10.
Mir McLean, who has become a solid contributor, was also dealing with foul trouble, and her production was limited.
The foul trouble slowed down in the second half. But the hole was already dug too deep.
Failure to keep up with Michigan
Michigan’s pace was too much for the Terps to handle, and Olivia Olson took full advantage.
“We’re a high-paced team as well. There were at times during the games, and we kind of got away from that,” Okananwa said.
The Wolverines took full advantage in the paint, from deep and through Olson’s success.
Olson finished with 28 points on 11-of-18 shooting from the field. She was another example of one player taking full advantage of Maryland’s defense and carrying her team to a win.
In the postseason, a performance like this could take the Terps out. It did on Saturday. Syla Swords finished with 17 points, but most of hers came towards the end.
But there was not one method to go with the one player tearing Maryland apart. They were beaten in two critical ways — from deep and inside.
Michigan scored 48 points in the paint and 30 from deep. Just nine points came elsewhere.
“I thought their intensity really got to us, and we haven’t really allowed teams to do that to us until this point,” Frese said.
Michigan shot 62.5% (10-of-16) from beyond the arc. In the second half, every time the Terps cut the game to 10, Michigan would answer with a layup and a 3-pointer. It was too much to handle.
“The film is there,” Okananwa said. “We know we’re going to bring an adjustment next week.”
