At this point in the college basketball season, it’s usually not advisable for a team to get caught up in looking back, but for Friday’s NCAA tournament opener, the Maryland women’s team could be excused for having flashbacks.
The Terps, who have struggled through injuries over most of the 2021-22 campaign, coasted to a 102-71 win over Delaware in the first round of this year’s tournament largely by looking a lot like they did last year.
Maryland (22-8), the fourth-seed in the Spokane region, hearkened back to the 2020-21 season where they blended crisp offense and solid perimeter defense, in blowing open what had been a relatively close contest at halftime.
The Terps shot 59 percent from the field, as all five starters scored in double figures, led by junior Ashley Owusu’s 24 points.
“Yeah, definitely felt similar in just the sense — first we got to 100 points, which is really fun, and everybody was scoring and sharing the basketball,” said guard Katie Benzan, who had 17 points “And just that’s how we pride ourselves, playing Maryland basketball. That’s just a fun way to play.
In a manner similar to last season when the Terps earned a No.2 seed before losing to Texas in the Sweet 16, Maryland dictated tempo, mixing a transition game with solid halfcourt offense.
“I love the fact that we understood that, and we joke we understood the assignment,” said Maryland coach Brenda Frese. “I thought we answered it really well, where we needed to play a complete game, and I love that we didn’t rest at halftime. We understood how much more we needed to be able to give.”
In the process, the Terps, who will meet 12-seeded Florida Gulf Coast in Sunday’s second round. knocked out the CAA-champion Blue Hens, ending the collegiate career of perimeter player Jasmine Dickey (Catonsville).
Dickey, the nation’s third-leading scorer, had a game-high 31 points, but those points were well-earned as she shot 12-of-32 from the field. Dickey, who is 5-foot-10, spent most of the day with 6-foot-3 junior Diamond Miller and 6-foot freshman Shyanne Sellers hassling her.
Dickey, who hit just two of her first 12 shots, eventually got her points, but she had to work for them.
“They’re just a bigger team overall,” said Dickey, who has declared for the WNBA draft next month. “They set really tough screens to get over. But I think we just had to adjust to it, and that’s what we tried to do going into the second half, which I think we did a little bit, especially in the second quarter tying the game up in the second quarter. Yeah, they were just bigger.”
Said Miller: “She’s definitely one of the top players that I have guarded this year. She’s very talented. Her pull-up is lethal. You can’t stop her really. We just tried to contain her as best we could today.
Dickey caught fire late in the second, hitting her last five shots of the half, including a three with 35 seconds left in the period, Her 20 first half points kept the 13th seeded Blue Hens in hailing distance of Maryland, as they trailed 49-39 at intermission.
However, in the third quarter, the Terps offense erupted, outscoring Delaware 31-17 in the period. Owusu, who missed four games late in the season with an ankle injury, paced the burst with nine of her team-high 24 points in the quarter.
“Yeah, Ash was her true self today,” said Benzan. “It was fun to watch, to just see her just excel. We’ve seen the behind-the-scenes work that she’s put in day in and day out, so just to see her succeed, I’m just so happy for her and let’s just keep it rolling.”
In the opener, Florida Gulf Coast turned back an Xfinity Center-record 42 points from Virginia Tech center Elizabeth Kitley, the Atlantic Coast Conference Player of the Year to win 84-81..
The Owls, who led the nation in three-point attempts this season, hit 15 treys Friday. Their style is likely to pose a distinct challenge to Maryland, which has lost two of its last three NCAA second round games at home.
“We have to understand every round gets that much more difficult. Florida Gulf Coast is a phenomenal team, and they’re going to try to take different things away from us, and we’re going to have to continue to play the right way,” said Frese.
Sports Media Analyst
Milton Kent is a veteran of Baltimore and Maryland journalism. Kent began a long association with the Baltimore Sun in 1985, serving as the Evening Sun’s Howard County reporter for 2 ½ years before joining the paper’s features department as an entertainment writer in 1988. In the following year, Kent began covering men’s and women’s college basketball for the Evening Sun, concentrating on the Maryland men’s and women’s teams. He continued covering college basketball when the writing staffs of the Evening and Morning Suns merged in 1991. From there, he covered the Orioles for three seasons before becoming one of the nation’s first fulltime sports media critics for parts of six years. In 2000, he began covering the NBA until 2004, when he launched a high school sports column, which he wrote until he left the Sun in 2008. Kent joined the staff of AOL Fanhouse, an online sports operation in 2009, covering sports media and women’s basketball, until operations ceased in 2011. He then joined the faculty at Morgan State University in the fall of 2011, where he has taught until the present day. In addition to writing for various platforms, including Sports Illustrated.com and TV Guide, Kent has hosted “Sports At Large,” a weekly commentary program airing on WYPR (88.1 FM) since 2002.