BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — For No. 14 Indiana, senior day brought one more chance to laud all-time scoring leader Mackenzie Holmes and Sara Scalia, who set the Hoosiers’ single-season three-point record. For visiting Maryland, it brought one last regular season chance to snag a résumé-boosting win.
The fans who packed the stands of Assembly Hall got what they wanted — and the Terps certainly did not — as the Hoosiers never trailed in a 71-54 victory Sunday afternoon.
The Terps (17-12, 9-9 Big Ten) finished with their worst conference record since they joined the Big Ten in 2014-15; before this season, they never had more than four Big Ten losses in a season. They will open the conference tournament against Illinois in the second round Thursday in Minneapolis. A matchup with No. 1 seed Ohio State awaits the winner in the quarterfinals Friday.
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Indiana (24-4, 15-3) completed a perfect regular season at home, going 15-0.
“Indiana is a really tough matchup,” Maryland Coach Brenda Frese said. “... You’ve got to throw this one away and forget about it and come out better in the Big Ten tournament because, if you come out and have a night like this, you’re going to be going home. This is a prideful locker room, and it’s a team that has fought all season. I would expect that they’ll come back out on a mission and ready to play.”
Unlike in Thursday’s victory over Wisconsin, the Terps struggled to get going. Before anyone could even settle in, Indiana was up 16-2, forcing Frese to use a timeout with 5:38 left in the first quarter. Coming out of that break, her squad put together its best stretch of the game as it rolled off 12 straight points, but that was as good as it got for the visitors.
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Indiana blew the game open with a 15-0 run early in the second quarter to grab a 36-16 lead. Maryland trailed by at least 12 points the rest of the way.
“That’s a physical team — we knew that when we went to Maryland and played them there,” Indiana Coach Teri Moren said. “We didn’t do anything extraordinary. We tried to do our best to keep them in front of us. Try to have activity around the ball. We knew that our will was going to have to be greater today than theirs.”
The Terps missed layup after layup as they shot just 28.4 percent, their second-worst mark of the season. Jakia Brown-Turner (15 points, 13 rebounds), Bri McDaniel (13 points) and Shyanne Sellers (11 points, six rebounds) carried the load but were a combined 12 for 49 from the field. Brinae Alexander (four points) was held without a three-pointer for just the second time this season. Defensively, Maryland allowed too many baseline drives to the basket and struggled to guard without fouling.
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“Just making layups — I feel like that would have stopped the bleeding a little bit,” Sellers said. “We left a lot of points in the paint. And then just getting stops — couple times they had multiple [offensive rebounds]. And then just disrupting — I feel we didn’t disrupt as much as needed to make them feel uncomfortable.”
All five Indiana starters finished in double figures, with Scalia leading the way with 19 points. Yarden Garzon added 17, and both were 4 for 8 from the three-point line. Chloe Moore-McNeil had 10 points, eight assists and six rebounds. Holmes was 5 for 5 for 11 points with six rebounds in just 23 minutes; she exited with a left knee injury in the third quarter, and Moren tentatively labeled her day-to-day.
Here’s what else to know about Maryland’s loss:
Big Ten tourney
After the loss, Maryland held the No. 7 seed in the Big Ten tournament. It fell to No. 8 when Michigan beat Purdue on Sunday night. Penn State, Michigan and Maryland finished with 9-9 conference records, but the Nittany Lions and Wolverines held tiebreakers over the Terps — and Michigan got the nod over Penn State for the No. 6 seed.
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Maryland has won all 16 of its matchups with No. 9 seed Illinois (14-14, 8-10), including two wins this season (90-82 at home and 69-53 on the road). The Terps and Fighting Illini will meet again at 12:30 p.m. Thursday.
“I think the biggest thing for us is forgetting everything,” Sellers said. “They don’t call it March Madness for no reason. Anything can happen. And I don’t feel we’re too far out. We’ve battled with every team in the conference. The Big Ten’s just a really great conference. But I feel like we’ve got to forget everything that didn’t work last time. We just have to make sure that we’re prepared for the next team we’re playing.”
Bubble watch
The Terps’ chances of reaching the NCAA tournament shouldn’t be drastically affected by a road loss to a ranked team.
Maryland entered Sunday ranked fifth in strength of schedule per WarrenNolan.com and 30th in the RPI according to RealTimeRPI.com. Maryland was No. 32 in the NCAA’s NET rankings. In ESPN’s most recent bracketology, Maryland was one of the last four teams with a bye as a No. 11 seed. The Athletic had the Terps as a No. 10 seed.
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