Maryland women's basketball cruises past Loyola Maryland in season opener
In this story:
Brenda Frese and her group opened the 2025 season yesterday evening in convincing fashion. The No. 10-ranked Maryland Terrapins defeated the Loyola Maryland Greyhounds, 80-26. This marked the 17th straight season the Terps have opened the season with a victory.
The Terps dominated the game, holding the Greyhounds to an abysmal 26 points. This defensive performance went down as the fewest points allowed by a Frese-led team and the third-fewest ever permitted in the program.
Lockdown Defense 🔒
— Maryland Women’s Basketball (@TerpsWBB) November 4, 2025
Loyola held scoreless for eight straight minutes! #faMily 🐢 pic.twitter.com/Y18MnrUIpQ
Loyola made only nine field goals on the night, was held to 21% from the three-point line, and only visited the charity stripe for six total free throws attempted.
Maryland forced 29 turnovers, scoring 35 total points. 18 of the forced turnovers were steals, demonstrating how stifling the defense was on the perimeter and in the passing lanes.
Maryland's leading scorers were Duke transfer Oluchi Okananwa, in her debut (18 points, 4-4 3pt fg), and senior guard Saylor Poffenbarger (11 points, three-of-three from the 3pt). Eleven of the 16 Terps players who entered the game scored a basket.
GUCCI LUCHI LAST NIGHT
— Maryland Women’s Basketball (@TerpsWBB) November 4, 2025
🏀 18 PTS
🏀 6-9 FG
🏀 4-4 3FG
🏀 3 ASTS@oluchi_okananwa x #faMily 🐢 pic.twitter.com/Po0QEA0U0h
Freshmen Make Early Impact
Four freshman ( Rainey Welson, Lea Bartelme, Addi Mack, and Marya Boiko) made their official collegiate debuts for the Terps. Boiko collected eight points, five rebounds, one block, and one assist in 14 minutes of action.
Bartelme scored seven points, three rebounds, two assists, and two steals. Mack added six points, and Welson saw 16 minutes of action.
Terps Team Stats
27-of-53 field goals: 51%
10-of-21 3pt field goals: 48%
16-of-21 from the free-throw line: 76%
39 total rebounds (10 offensive)
20 assists
14 fast break points
32 points in the paint
Brenda Frese's Postgame Thoughts
"I loved seeing how we came out. I thought we weren't afraid of the moment. I thought we came out strong and aggressive. You were able to see the depth that we had. We're able to send the waves where people don't have to rest, and we're able to extend many things defensively.
She continued, "I thought Luchi and Saylor played the right way and had really good games. We got significant minutes for everyone. The freshmen were really important tonight to gain valuable game experience. There are a lot of good things to go back on and some things to improve on. A shared 18 turnovers is way too many, but for the first game of the season, I guess I'll take a positive to assist ratio, but it's an area we can improve on."
Up Next:
The Terps are back in College Park on Thursday to take on UMBC; tipoff starts at 6 p.m.
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Jaden's sports journalism career began at the College of Southern Maryland from 2022-2023, where he was brought in to cover baseball, softball, basketball, soccer, and volleyball at CSM. In late 2023, he began interning at the University of Maryland Athletics Department as a contributing writer to help develop feature stories and game recaps. He also creates his own sports media content on professional Washington teams with LegacyMaker Sports Network.