Maryland women’s basketball (13-2, 9-1 B1G) continued to roll, while head coach Brenda Frese earned her 499th career win Thursday—tying her with Chris Weller as the all-time winningest coach in Maryland women’s basketball history.
The Terps defeated the Badgers (4-12, 1-12 B1G) 84-48 in a strong effort on both ends of the floor at the XFINITY Center.
Frese now has 556 wins as a Division I head coach at Ball State, Minnesota and Maryland.
The XFINITY Center has been kind to Maryland not only in the terps’ 2020-2021 campaign, but since the 1971-1972 inaugural season. The Terps have an .805 all-time win percentage in College Park and are 268-41 under Brenda Frese since she took over the helm in 2002.
Meanwhile, since transitioning out of the ACC to the Big Ten in 2014, the Terps are 51-4 with a .927 win percentage against conference opponents at the XFINITY Center.
The Terps began this Big Ten battle on a 14-2 run over the opening 4:34, while holding the Badgers scoreless for 3:35 in the first quarter as Maryland exploded off to a 22-12 advantage.
However, the Terrapins won this game on the defensive side of the ball putting up an exquisite performance only allowing junior forward, Imani Lewis, and sophomore guard Sydney Hilliard to score double-digits.
The rest of the Wisconsin offense was held to a combined 15 points. The Terps also stood tall, halting the Badgers to shooting only 42% from the field, forcing 25 turnovers and out-scoring Wisconsin 42-26 in the paint.
“You have to find other ways to get the job done when we’re having an off night offensively and I don’t want to discredit the work our team puts in defensively,” Frese said.
Although Maryland was stout and disciplined on the defensive side of the ball, the Badgers had no answers for the number one scoring offense in the country.
“We’re still young and always continuing to learn, but our offense is ignited from our play defensively and we have to keep that going,” senior forward Chloe Bibby said.
The Terps had six players in double-figures: sophomore guard Diamond Miller, sophomore forward Mimi Collins, senior guard Katie Benzan, sophomore guard Ashley Owusu, Bibby and sophomore forward Faith Masonius.
Those players shot 52% from the field, went 40% from behind the arc, and scored 30 points off of turnovers. The Terps used those turnovers to create transition opportunities outscoring the Badgers 22-2 on fast break points.
Frese and the Terps will have to wait until Feb. 14 to hit the hardwood again as their Big Ten matchup this Sunday, Feb. 7, against No. 13 Michigan (10-1, 5-1 BIG) has been postponed.
Frese will go for her 500th win and the teams 14th on the season when they head to Lincoln to take on Nebraska (9-5, 7-4 BIG) at 5:00 p.m. on FOX Sports 1 at Pinnacle Bank Arena.
