COLLEGE PARK, MD — No. 17 Maryland women’s basketball guard Kaylene Smikle stared down Nebraska senior Alberte Rimdal, with just over seven minutes remaining in Thursday night’s contest.
Smikle waited near the right edge of paint as Rimdal prepared to drive inside. But before Smikle had even set her feet, Rimdal was already finishing her layup. The Cornhusker guard had breezed past Smikle in a play that embodied three-fourths of Thursday night’s showing at the XFINITY Center.
After Maryland thoroughly dominated the opening quarter, Nebraska virtually ran past the Terps the rest of night. The Cornhuskers outscored Maryland by 31 points over the final three quarters, in a humbling 91-71 defeat for the Terps.
Thursday’s loss was Maryland’s (19-6, 9-5 Big Ten) third straight at home, an undesirable blemish that the Terps last encountered in 2010.
“It’s really hard when you go in with Plan A, and you have to go to Plan B,” Maryland head coach Brenda Frese said. “Then, you go to plan C, and then you go to Plan D, and none of them are working.”
Both offenses pushed up the floor at an absurdly fast pace in the opening quarter, to the tune of 36 total possessions; on average, each one lasted just over half of the shot-clock at 16.7 seconds per set. Even though Nebraska (17-8, 8-6 Big Ten) dictated the tempo, the blistering back-and-forth favored the Terps.
Smikle first put points to Maryland’s name with a triple on the Terps’ first offense possession. Over the next four and half minutes, Sellers was Maryland’s sole offensive force — a trend that proved incredibly successful.
Sellers scored 12 straight points while the blistering Cornhuskers moved too fast to control their own transition game. The senior later finished with a team-high 23 points and was the only Maryland player to score in double figures — a lone bright spot in an otherwise dismal showing.
“I don’t think it really matters,” Sellers said of her 23-point performance. “We can’t have both offense struggle and defense struggle, and I think that was the biggest part.”
The Terps had led by as many as 14 near the end of the first quarter and were on pace to score well over 100 points by the time the first frame ended. That changed abruptly.
Sellers’ contributions were held to a minimum for much of the second period, and Nebraska found a smooth rhythm in transition to flip the margin by 20.
“It really started with our ability to secure rebounds, and then once we did we could get out and push a little bit more pace,” Nebraska head coach Amy Williams said. “When our guards will get down there and rebound … then we can take off and get moving down the floor a little bit faster.”
The Cornhuskers looked likely to carry a lead into the break, as they led 45-39 with just under 40 seconds remaining in the half.
Sellers came to Maryland’s rescue once more, fighting through contact to bank home an and-one two-pointer from inside the paint. She unsurprisingly sank the ensuing free throw before sophomore Emily Fisher knocked down a wide open three-pointer along the right baseline.
Despite a hectically bizarre first half, Fisher’s triple — the first of her career — sent the Terps and Cornhuskers to the break, even at 45 points apiece. But Maryland’s momentum didn’t survive the 15-minute halftime.
Freshman Britt Prince and senior Alexis Markowski worked Maryland’s defense from the interior. The pair combined for an efficient 15 points on nine shots in the third quarter. Though Prince and Markowski could’ve been just as effective at a lower clip because the Cornhuskers out-rebounded Maryland 14-3 in the third frame.
Markowski was the largest force behind Nebraska’s dominant glass presence. She finished the night with a game-high 11 rebounds. More impressively though, all 10 Cornhuskers who played on Thursday night grabbed at least one board.
Adding to the evening’s frustrations, Nebraska held Maryland scoreless for the final minutes of the third quarter. Having completely reversed the first quarter tide, Nebraska led by 14 — an advantage only got larger over the final 10 minutes.
After shooting at a 63.2% clip from the field in the first quarter, the Terps posted field goal percentages of 38.5, 21.4, and 33.3 in the following three quarters, respectively.
“I just thought their will to win and compete was a lot greater than ours tonight,” Frese said.
The Terps will look to rebound in their penultimate home game on Monday. They face Michigan in a 6 p.m. tipoff.
