Second-half swoon leaves Terps women with rare loss to Michigan State

The Terrapins (10-5, 2-2 Big Ten) fell to 18-3 against Michigan State, losing for the first time since Jan. 17, 2019.

“We’ve got to get better at controlling our emotions,” Coach Brenda Frese said. “These are high-level games now that we’re involved in. And I think sometimes we take away opportunities from ourselves or we’re upset about a call or not focused on the right thing or the game plan. I thought we did a really good job for the first 20 minutes, and we lost our poise and composure in the second half.”

The opening 20 minutes were one of the best defensive performances of the season for Maryland. It held Michigan State (12-3, 2-2), which entered Tuesday third in the nation at 91.1 points per game, to seven in the second quarter and 22 in the half. And that came from a Terps squad that entered 13th in the Big Ten in scoring defense, allowing 71.1 points per outing. Nothing came easy for the Spartans — there was almost always a hand in the shooter’s face, which limited Michigan State to 30 percent shooting, including 2 for 15 (13.3 percent) in the second quarter.

Maryland had a 29-22 halftime lead, but that didn’t last.

“Maryland, credit to them, came out in the first [half] and really bothered us,” Michigan State Coach Robyn Fralick said. “I thought they had a good game plan, and it got us really out of rhythm. … So we made some adjustments at halftime, and our kids did a really good job of executing them.”

“They started setting the screen on their high-ball-screen action,” Terps guard Shyanne Sellers said. “Just trying to pick us apart that way, knowing that we would help on the roll and then skip it. But they made adjustments and we didn’t. We just didn’t do our job.”

Those second-half adjustments drew in the Maryland defense to set up open shooters. The Terps couldn’t keep up; they had little offense outside of Sellers (23 points, nine rebounds) and Bri McDaniel (career-high 20 points, eight rebounds).

Michigan State had a three-point lead by the end of the third quarter, then hit three consecutive three-pointers in the fourth to go ahead 57-53 and never trailed again.

Julia Ayrault and Moira Joiner led the Spartans with 20 points apiece; Ayrault had 10 rebounds. Michigan State shot 55.6 percent in the second half, including a 5-for-11 effort from behind the arc.

“I wish I knew,” Frese said when asked about her team’s offensive struggles. “That’s the consistency card that we’re working on. It’s showing up every single game — especially with the amount of veterans that we have and being able to bring that consistency. It starts with making layups. I can’t even imagine how many layups that we missed in this game.”

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McDaniel attacked the basket and was looking for her shot from the opening minutes, leading to her career evening. The sophomore has the ball in her hands more often these days, particularly after moving into the starting lineup, and she was able to create.

“It was just a conscious decision to get going early,” McDaniel said. “We put an emphasis on driving hard. So that was really my main focus, and just trying to get everybody else involved.”

She and Sellers had 21 of the Terps’ 26 fourth-quarter points.

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Lavender Briggs seemed to find her groove in her first two games after returning from injury as she actively hunted shots. That was not the case Tuesday, when she took one shot — an errant three-pointer — and played just 12 minutes.

“I thought Riley [Nelson] gave us really good minutes,” Frese said. “I didn’t really feel that Lav was really giving us what she typically does. It was an off night for her. And sometimes other players just take your minutes.”

Nelson had five points in 18 minutes. Jakia Brown-Turner dealt with foul trouble but was also ineffective (four points in 25 minutes).

Frese decided to go a bit smaller after halftime. Faith Masonius (eight points) started the third quarter in place of Allie Kubek, who was scoreless in 11 minutes. Frese said Kubek’s lack of court time was tied to bad matchups against guard-heavy Michigan State, plus the fact that she was struggling offensively.