COLLEGE PARK, MD — The No. 3 Maryland Terps took-down the 6th ranked team from Baylor by a final score of 79-76 on Sunday afternoon at XFINITY Center. Maryland has three Top-10 games this week which will feel like the NCAA tourney with the Baylor game, NC State on Thanksgiving then the reigning NCAA champs of Stanford on Saturday.
All-American Ashley Owusu led the Terps with a season-high 24 points and that included a milestone, 1,000th point, of her career. She became the 35th Terp to score 1,000 points in her Maryland career. Angel Reese added 17 points of her own and had nine rebounds and hit one of the biggest shots of the game with a key 3-point play with 1:08 left in the game to put the Terps up by six.
The consistent Chloe Bibby came up big again, and she scored 16 points with three 3-pointers. The 6’3″ forward, Mimi Collins, had 10 points and eight rebounds in this one.
Maryland got production from junior guard Diamond Miller, who had been out with knee soreness. Miller returned to action last week with a 4-minute outing against UNC Wilmington on Thursday, and she put up five points and four rebounds in 11 minutes against Baylor.
One area the Terps have to work on is their rebounding against the larger and more physical teams. They were outrebounded 43-39 by Baylor. The good news is that the Terps scored 17 second-chance points to Baylor’s seven, and they were 17-of-18 from the foul line, compared to Baylor’s 4-of-5. You could say this game was won at the charity stripe.
With Maryland’s upcoming games against NC State and Stanford this week, and the two teams ahead of the Terps in the AP Poll that will be facing each other today, you can expect a lot of poll movement and debates after the dust settles. The No. 1 ranked South Carolina Gamecocks and the No. 2 UConn Huskies will meet at noon in the Battle 4 Atlantis championship game to decide, for now, which team is the tops in the country. Of course, Maryland (6-0), sitting at third in the Associated Press Top 25 poll, just got the first win this week in what they are hoping is the trifecta to prove they are the best team in the country.
