The Terps suffered their first defeat of the season.
Thousands of fans packed Xfinity Center Wednesday night to see a high-octane matchup between two of the best women’s college basketball teams in the country.
After four back-and-forth quarters, the result didn’t go No. 8 Maryland women’s basketball’s way, but the matchup delivered quite the show. The Terps suffered their first defeat of the season at the hands of No. 4 USC, 79-74.
“You win or you learn,” Shyanne Sellers said, quoting one of her head coach Brenda Frese’s mantras. “This is going to be a learning moment for us.”
The Trojans (15-1) were led by star guard JuJu Watkins and center KiKi Iriafen, who each scored 21 points. Sellers paced Maryland (14-1) with 26 and a sensational two-way performance, guarding Watkins.
In front of its most raucous home crowd of 2024, Maryland came blistering out of the gate. Saylor Poffenbarger and Christina Dalce combined for Maryland’s first nine points and helped the Terps go up by seven points in the first couple minutes. Dalce’s hot start injected life into her teammates and the crowd, as she instantly looked like a rejuvenated version of herself coming off recent offensive struggles.
“Sometimes I struggle with my own confidence,” Dalce said. “I knew that this game meant a lot to everybody on the team, so I knew I had to do my part.”
USC found its legs, though, as the Trojans fed Watkins and got a boost from guard Kayleigh Heckel, who went 3 for 3 from the field in the first quarter.
No one looked more poised early than Shyanne Sellers. She was in attack mode in the first half, getting to the rim for some acrobatic finishes, including a highlight reel and-1. Despite the early momentum, the Trojans did enough to cut Maryland’s lead to just two entering the second quarter.
The next period saw things take a turn for the worse for Maryland. The Terps offense, which has flowed beautifully at times throughout the season, went cold as they relied on isolation plays for Kaylene Smikle.
“A lot of plays, we tried to take difficult shots,” Frese said. “They sped us up, it was a hard fought game. When we go back and can learn from those moments, it’s going to make us that much better.”
Smikle, the Terps leading scorer, forced up ill-advised contested shots en route to an 0-of-8 first-half shooting performance. While Maryland’s offense slowed, USC grabbed a lead on the backs of its stars, Watkins and Iriafen. The Trojans extended their lead as far as seven points before Maryland got some momentum back on its side with a massive Sarah Te-Biasu pull-up 3-pointer.
Despite its leading scorer failing to make a shot, the Terps trailed by just a point at halftime.
Luckily for them, Smikle didn’t stay cold all night. She returned to form in the third quarter, as she and Sellers led a Maryland run. Halfway through the quarter, Smikle picked Watkins’ pocket and laid it up in transition, sending Xfinity Center into a frenzy.
Maryland did everything it could, to make Watkins’ life difficult with Sellers guarding her most of the game.
“I think people forget that I’m a two-way player, I stepped up to the plate,” Sellers said. “We’ve seen everything, we’ve seen Caitilin Clark, we’ve seen everybody, I had to guard Ashley Owusu in practice.”
Still, every time Maryland built a lead, USC had a counter. The game was deadlocked at 58 heading into the final 10 minutes.
Maryland started the quarter on a 6-0 run, but after a timeout from USC head coach Lindsay Gottlieb, the tide turned. Maryland had Watkins in foul trouble, but her supporting cast stepped up to bring the Trojans right back into the game, including a 7-0 solo run from freshman Kennedy Smith.
With 90 seconds left, the game was tied. Then, the Trojans went on a fast-break, located Iriafen on a physical mismatch with Smikle and drew an and-1. Maryland had multiple chances to respond, but couldn’t, as Poffenbarger missed a reverse layup and an off-balance 3-pointer.
The Trojans put the finishing touches on the game from the free-throw line to win by five points.
Three things to know
1. Maryland’s depth faltered. The Terps got stellar performances from Sellers, Dalce and Smikle in the second half, but not enough from the rest of their rotation players. Bri McDaniel couldn’t establish any rhythm while in foul trouble, Allie Kubek played just eight minutes and Poffenbarger had a great game on the glass — totaling a season-high 17 rebounds — but couldn’t provide the offense Maryland needed late.
2. The Terps were outrebounded. Maryland had one of the best rebounding margins in the country during its undefeated start to the season, but couldn’t keep pace with the Trojans. The Terps were outrebounded, 47-40, and gave up 16 offensive rebounds. Frese said Kubek’s lack of minutes was due to Dalce and Poffenbarger giving better output on the glass.
“The guards needed to rebound,” Frese said. “You can’t have one rebound from Bri [McDaniel] and the rest of them not give you a board.”
3. The Terps proved themselves, despite the loss. Despite the disappointment of letting a game slip through its fingers, Maryland proved that it’s a top-10 team in women’s college basketball. The Terps will receive multiple more chances to prove themselves later this month.