Maryland women’s basketball head coach Brenda Frese called a timeout with five and a half minutes left on the clock against Ohio State. His team was down six points and needed a spark.
Freshman guard Rainey Welson hit an open mid-range shot off a dribble that went halfway and then took off. At the other end, the Buckeyes’ leading scorer, Jaloni Cambridge, hit a 3-pointer from the wing and splashed it. Thirty seconds later, he did the same, giving them their largest lead of 12 points.
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It was the final blow to the Terps’ second loss of the season. Despite leading by 15 early in the first half, the Terps ultimately fell, 89-76. Cambridge bested Oluchi Okananwa’s 27 points, scoring a game-high 28 in the victory.
In Maryland’s blowout win Thursday night against Rutgers, senior forward Yarden Garzón got into that lethal shooter groove she found for many years as a Hoosier. It continued into Sunday afternoon, when the Terps jumped on Ohio State early.
After Okananwa got to the rim for a pair of layups, Garzón hit three 3-pointers in a few minutes to give Maryland a double-digit lead in the first quarter. On the other end, Frese trapped Okananwa and his lethal combination of lateral quickness and defensive grit on the Buckeyes’ leading scorer, Jaloni Cambridge, forcing them to try to manufacture offense from other spots.
The Terps executed well in the first 10 minutes, building a 12-point lead. However, games between the Terps and Buckeyes always feature momentum swings, and one of them came early in the second quarter.
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Ohio State’s reputation as a poor three-point shooting team (it entered with the worst shooting percentage in the conference) worked in its favor, as Maryland allowed the Buckeyes to have a couple of open looks that they knocked down. Jaloni’s older sister, Kennedy Cambridge, took down two earlier in the quarter. Maryland’s turnover error bit him again, as he gave the ball away several times in the defensive zone.
Jaloni Cambridge continued to struggle to score from the floor, but drew fouls that got her going from the charity stripe. In the second quarter, Ohio State shot 10 free throws to Maryland’s zero, helping it win the quarter by 10 and cut Maryland’s lead to two at halftime.
At the beginning of the third quarter, with a fumble at midcourt, the referees whistled Okananwa for their third foul. She trotted to the bench, where she sat for a long time.
In his absence, Maryland struggled to generate offense. Saylor Poffenbarger, who started the season extremely aggressive with the ball in her hands, feinted with some seemingly good looks, either opting for a harder shot or giving the ball away.
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On the contrary, Jaloni Cambridge got into the game, looking for screen switches to go down and score. Ohio State took the lead in the third frame, taking a two-point lead into the final 10 minutes.
Before Maryland’s timeout midway through the fourth quarter, Welson hit a 3-pointer from the corner to cut the lead to one point. That sent the crowd into a frenzy, but there wasn’t much time to celebrate: Kennedy Cambridge responded instantly on the other end of the line.
It was that type of game for the Terps, as Ohio State seemed to have a counterpunch for every hit the Terps threw in the second half. After Jaloni Cambridge’s two 3-pointers, Maryland got one more lifeline thanks to four quick points from Okananwa. But the Terps gave up two offensive rebounds and a bucket that put the finishing touch on Ohio State’s victory.
Three things you should know
1. Ohio State had its best shooting night of the season. Shooting less than 30% from three, Ohio State was 11 of 22 from beyond the arc on Sunday afternoon. Both Cambridge sisters hit some massive 3-pointers in the fourth quarter to push the Buckeyes over the finish line. It remains to be seen if they can replicate the performance when the teams meet again in Columbus in February.
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2. Biggest crowd of the year. Maryland had a loud home crowd, easily the largest of the year. The Xfinity Center faithful did their best to give the Terps the energy they needed, but came away deflated as Ohio State’s big guns took the wind out of the atmosphere at multiple points.
3. Welson was once again an X factor. One positive from the Terps’ loss was that Welson’s good shooting night against Rutgers carried over. The freshman appears to have regained her confidence and stroke from beyond the arc, hitting four 3-pointers in eight attempts.