MINNEAPOLIS — Shyanne Sellers had a message as the clock wound down Friday afternoon. She dribbled the ball near midcourt as she nodded her head, turned toward the Big Ten Network broadcasters seated courtside and shouted twice for emphasis, “PEAKING AT THE RIGHT TIME!”
The victory is Maryland’s first over a top-five team since it beat No. 4 Louisville in a 2014 NCAA tournament regional final. Maryland Coach Brenda Frese improved to 22-5 in Big Ten tournament games, the highest winning percentage of any coach in league history, and the Terps (19-12) advanced to the semifinals for the ninth time in their 10 seasons in the league. Ohio State (25-5) became the first No. 1 seed to lose its first Big Ten tournament game since Penn State in 2014.
And if any doubt remained before Friday, the win seemed to cement Maryland’s place in the NCAA tournament after it was on the bubble throughout the final month of the regular season. The Terps had gone 0-8 against ranked opponents.
“I feel like we’re just peaking at the right time. That’s what I said,” Sellers said. “I said to Coach all year, especially the second half, I feel like we’re right there from flipping the switch and making those turns. Our Iowa game, our Ohio State games [in the regular season] have all been super close. We just haven’t gotten over that hump. Now [that] we’ve gotten over the hump, I feel like we’re going to keep going and not look back.”
Maryland dropped to eighth place in the conference on the final day of the regular season, but that may have been a blessing in disguise. Both games against Ohio State in the regular season were tightly contested losses, and the Buckeyes may have been a better matchup than second-seeded Iowa or third-seeded Indiana.
“I think it’s how much we’ve grown,” Frese said. “We’ve had so many games with Ohio State and Indiana and games that have been possessions in the fourth quarter, and they’ve gotten away from us. So I think that’s the growth of this team is the resiliency and just to be able to keep their poise together and be able to weather that storm.”
The Terps put together their best performance of the season against a team considered Final Four-caliber, leading for more than 30 of the game’s 40 minutes. Sellers had 25 points, eight rebounds and seven assists, but it was a group effort for a Maryland squad dressed in black-on-black uniforms. Graduate seniors Brinae Alexander (19 points, five three-pointers), Jakia Brown-Turner (19 points, nine rebounds) and Faith Masonius (15 points, 11 rebounds, four assists) hit shot after shot to keep Ohio State at bay each time it tried to make a push.
Maryland led 38-30 at halftime and never trailed in the second half. The result seemed to solidify during a 9-0 run in the third quarter that included a midrange pull-up by Sellers and a transition three by Alexander. Ohio State Coach Kevin McGuff was furious afterward and was called for a technical foul as he rushed onto the court to protest a non-call that led to an odd-man break and Alexander’s open three. Sellers hit four consecutive free throws after the technical to give the Terps a 63-44 lead, and the Buckeyes never got closer than 11 the rest of the way.
“I’ve got to move on offense more for my teammates to get open, and I think I did a better job at that today,” Alexander said. “Even though I did miss, think I missed my first three threes, it’s just the mentality to keep shooting. Once it goes in, the basket just gets bigger and bigger. So once I get that confidence, there’s no coming back from that.”
Women's Big Ten basketball tournament
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Maryland’s defensive effort may be what was most impressive against an Ohio State team that entered 15th in the country at 80.4 points per game. Rebeka Mikulasikova scored a team-high 16 points for the Buckeyes, and Taylor Thierry added 13, but future WNBA players Cotie McMahon (12 points) and Jacy Sheldon (10 points) were limited. McMahon was 3 for 17 from the field and struggled to finish around the rim.
“Maryland played a great game. They were really prepared,” McGuff said. “They played like a team that might have needed this to get in the tournament, and we played like a team that showed up as the No. 1 seed and everybody was just supposed to lie down, and that’s not what happened.
“They wanted the game more, and you got to really fight on defense. You’ve got to fight to get rebounds. We didn’t fight, and they did.”
Here’s what else to know about Maryland’s victory:
A pressing problem
Ohio State typically challenges its opponents with a swarming and sweltering full-court press that creates turnovers and leads to instant offense. The Terps mostly handled it well, and their 15 turnovers equated to just 11 Ohio State points. Maryland outrebounded the Buckeyes 55-31 and scored regularly enough to make it difficult for the Buckeyes to set up the press.
X-factors do it again
In Thursday’s second-round win over Illinois, Alexander and Allie Kubek stepped up. Alexander did it again Friday, contributing her second-highest scoring output of the season, but Masonius’s play is what Maryland has been waiting for — and needing — all season. Consistency had been an issue, with Friday just the second time she reached double figures since Dec. 3. The 11 rebounds were a season high.
“[Frese has] been telling us the only team that can beat us is ourselves,” Masonius said. “Even before we left, Shy looked at me, and she was like, ‘Just be on the glass tonight.’ I took that to heart and just got in there.”
