BIRMINGHAM, Al. — With 21 seconds remaining in the game, No. 4-seeded Maryland women’s basketball needed a response.
The Terps brought the ball to halfcourt with their final timeout down four points. No. 1-seeded South Carolina’s Bree Hall had made only one of two free throws, giving the Terps a window back into the game.
Shyanne Sellers inbounded the ball to Sarah Te-Biasu, who tried to return the ball quickly. Instead, Te-Biasu’s handoff rolled off Sellers’ fingers and onto the baseline as Maryland’s senior leader bent down and stared at the floor in despair.
With its possession thrown away, Maryland lost a final chance to come back against South Carolina, falling 71-67 in Friday’s Sweet 16 matchup.
“I’m really, really proud of this group,” head coach Brenda Frese said. “I thought they came out and you saw our players competed as hard as they have for forty minutes. I knew they would. We were this resilient all season long, going 10-1 on the road.”
The Terps and the Gamecocks were the second contest in Legacy Arena on Friday, taking the court following a 47-38 rock fight between No. 2-seed Duke and No. 3-seed North Carolina. With the chance to face the victorious Blue Devils in the Elite Eight on the line, Maryland and South Carolina picked the rocks up themselves.
South Carolina and Maryland – who average 80.8 and 81.0 points per game, respectively – combined for 12 points through the first five minutes and change, with some in the stands surely wondering if the NCAA had supplied the right size rims.
Early on, Chloe Kitts dominated the Terps all by herself. Through the first seven minutes, the 6-foot-2 forward scored all of South Carolina’s 10 points and grabbed five of its eight boards.
From there, MiLaysia Fulwiley took over, scoring seven straight for the Gamecocks through the end of the first quarter.
Fulwiley and Kitts were 8-for-11 from the floor in the first period; their teammates combined to shoot 0-for-10, but South Carolina managed to take a one-point advantage into the second quarter.
And yet, the shooting got worse – the two teams made just one basket each and committed three turnovers apiece through the opening half of the second period.
South Carolina went bucketless for five and a half minutes of the frame, helped in large part by the absence of star Gamecock guard Te-Hina Paopao. Kaylene Smikle went one-on-one with Paopao twice in the first quarter, drawing two quick fouls on the star senior.
In Paopao’s absence, the Gamecock offense was disrupted, and the Terps took a surprise lead and hung on through to halftime.
Maryland’s differentiating factor was free throws; South Carolina played physically, sending the Terps to the charity stripe 16 times — a trend that would not continue.
“You know, I’ve continued to play South Carolina in the past, but it was a very physical game,” Frese said. “We got to the free-throw line quite a bit in the first half and then all of a sudden it changed in the second half. We got there, two times?”
The Terps’ 11 free-throw makes were the perfect counterbalance to the Gamecocks’ bench depth in the first half. Five of Smikle’s team-leading nine points before the break were from the line, helping Maryland to a 33-31 lead.
Offensively and defensively, it was a team effort from the Terps.
Maryland was unselfish in its half-court offense, recognizing South Carolina’s weaknesses in defensive rotations.
But the most impressive part of Maryland’s game was the consistency with which the Terps suffocated South Carolina down low. Maryland consistently pushed three players into the paint, forcing unforgiving looks for a South Carolina team that leads the country in paint points.
“We wanted to pack the paint, battle on the glass, and I thought we did that to the very end,” Frese said.
The Terps stumbled out of the third-quarter media timeout, allowing a 7-0 run that put the Gamecocks ahead. Frese called a timeout to reset her players; after Smikle made a layup, Te-Biasu stole the ball off Fulwiley’s fingertips and stroked home a transition three to put the Terps back up by four.
South Carolina had awoken, though, with the end of the third quarter giving the Terps a momentary respite.
The teams traded baskets through the fourth quarter, with Allie Kubek making critical buckets. “Automatic Allie,” as Frese dubbed the graduate student yesterday, finished a perfect 5-for-5 with 12 points.
The lead changed four times in a three-minute span, with the Terps furiously fighting to stay in the game.
But the furor fell short. Kubek fouled out with just over three minutes remaining. With her departure, Maryland lost its only significant interior threat; bigs Saylor Poffenbarger and Christina Dalce shot a combined 2-for-13 from inside the paint.
And facing a do-or-die situation, the offense sputtered.
The Terps didn’t score for three minutes, allowing the Gamecocks to stretch their lead to six with 34 seconds remaining. Five turnovers over the final 2:06 kept Maryland from taking the shots that could have stemmed the bleeding.
A triple from Saylor Poffenbarger brought Maryland back within three points, but the penultimate turnover, on the Sellers inbounds pass, was the virtual nail in the coffin for Maryland.
It was a valiant effort from the Terps, who fell just short in the end but can walk away with their heads held high.
“I think we executed the game plan to a tee, [it] came down to we missed more free throws than we usually do and then a couple of stops at the end,” Sellers said. “But ultimately I’m super proud of this group, proud of the way we fought. People thought we were going to get crushed by 20, I think we set the record straight to stop doubting Maryland again and again.”
