Indiana women's basketball holds off Maryland for fourth straight win
Indiana women's basketball's poise down the stretch helped it pull out a 87-73 win at the Xfinity Center in College Park on Wednesday night.
The No. 10 Hoosiers (18-2; 9-1 Big Ten) won their fourth straight game over a Maryland team (12-9; 4-6) playing without its best overall player, Shyanne Sellers. Sellers, who is averaging 15.4 points per game adn 5.3 assists, suffered an injury in the Terrapins previous game against Penn State.
After Maryland cut what was a 22-point lead to 72-65 with 7:34 to go, Indiana went on a 10-0 run while holding the Terrapins without a field goal for nearly six minutes. The run started when Maryland forward Faith Masonius was called for a technical foul and gave IU a four-point possession.
Indiana had four starters in double-digits with Mackenzie Holmes had her sixth double-double of the season with 23 points and 10 rebounds.
Maryland women’s basketball wakes up at halftime
Maryland found a spark when it went to a three-quarters court press and trapped IU’s ball handlers early in the third quarter. The Terrapins cut a 22-point lead to nine with a pair of free-throws in the final seconds.
The Hoosiers turned the ball over five times in the quarter and got overly aggressive on defense. Yarden Garzon picked up her fourth foul with 3:41 left and that put the Terrapins into the bonus. They were 10 of 13 from the free-throw line in the quarter.
Maryland hit nine straight field goal attempts as it cut into IU’s lead.
Indiana women’s basketball has hot hand in the first half
Indiana came close to matching its season average for made 3-pointers in the first quarter. The Hoosiers had six 3-pointers in the first 10 minutes and went into halftime 8 of 18 from 3-point range.
Sara Scalia, Lexus Bargesser and Yarden Garzon drained consecutive 3-pointers in the opening minutes to give IU a 14-2 lead. Maryland opened the game 0 for 5 and didn’t score a field goal until there was 5:44 left in the first.
The Hoosiers went on to shoot 59% in the half overall (19 of 32) and was a perfect 6 of 6 from the free-throw line to take a 52-30 lead into halftime.
Michael Niziolek is the Indiana beat reporter for The Bloomington Herald-Times. You can follow him on X @michaelniziolek and read all his coverage by clicking here.
This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: Indiana women's basketball puts away Maryland with late run
