By Ryan Homler

The Maryland Women’s Basketball team took down the Minnesota Golden Gophers Friday for the second time in less than a week by a score of 92-80 at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.

Maryland, the second seed in the Big Ten Tournament, was led by seniors Shatori Walker-Kimbrough who had 28 points and Brionna Jones who dropped 14 points to go along with 13 rebounds.

Walker-Kimbrough, who had nine points at the half, came out scorching hot scoring 16 points in the third quarter as she drained four of her six three-pointers during that period.

“I airballed in the first half, and Kristen [Confroy] told me to keep shooting,” said Walker-Kimbrough. “Coming in at half time Ieshia said, ‘let it fly,’ so I let the thing fly.”

Maryland implemented a press early on in the first quarter, and the Gophers did the same shortly after. The Terps struggled with the pressure at first, but were able to adjust and take advantage of it for easy scoring opportunities.

“I think we needed to flash people middle more,” said freshman guard Destiny Slocum. “We adapted to it and I think we did a really good job of doing that.”

In her first tournament game, freshman guard Kaila Charles put on an impressive showing by contributing 15 points and 6 rebounds in the victory.

“It was exciting,” said Charles when asked about what it was like to play in the tournament for the first time. “I love challenges, so I love that we have this tournament where everybody’s playing their hardest to win. So it’s a fun experience.”

Minnesota’s Gadiva Hubbard, who did not play in the last meeting between these two teams, led the way for the Golden Gophers with 28 points.

The Terps will be back in action tomorrow as they will take on the winner of the Michigan v. Michigan State shortly after the conclusion of the Ohio State v. Purdue matchup. You can hear the game right here on WMUC Sports at http://mixlr.com/wmucsports1/.