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No. 12 Terps Dismantled By No. 3 UCLA

The Maryland Terrapins women's basketball team fell to the UCLA Bruins in their last game of a brief road trip to Los Angeles.
Jaden Golding|
Maryland vs. UCLA | HIGHLIGHTS | Big Ten Women's Basketball | 01/18/26
Maryland vs. UCLA | HIGHLIGHTS | Big Ten Women's Basketball | 01/18/26 | Big Ten Network

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Maryland TerrapinsUCLA Bruins

Brenda Frese and her team knew it would be a steep challenge to come into Los Angeles and knock off the UCLA Bruins, but the Bruins proved their status as a top team in the country, defeating the Terps 97-67 at Pauley Pavilion yesterday afternoon.

The Terps (17-3, 5-3 Big Ten) dropped only their third game of the season, with two of them coming in the last three contests against ranked programs. Maryland split their two-game West Coast trip, defeating USC before yesterday's game against UCLA.

Oluchi Okananwa led the way not only for Maryland but for all scorers, scoring 25 points. Okananwa shot 9-of-15 from the floor, 3-of-4 from three, 4-for-6 at the free throw line to go along with five rebounds and two steals in 35 minutes of play.

Okananwa has scored 20 or more points in eight contests this season, including a 34-point outing in a victory against Indiana earlier this month. She continues to fill up the stat sheet in her first season at College Park and leads the Terps in scoring.

Saylor Poffenbarger hit a 25-foot three-point jumper to cut the Bruins' (17-1, 7-0 Big Ten) lead down to 27-22 at the 7:52 mark in the second quarter. That would be the closest Maryland would get the rest of the way. As the Bruins responded with a 12-4 run to extend their lead to 13 points in the next three minutes, which allowed them to lead 47-35 at halftime.

In the third quarter, Maryland went scoreless for nearly the first four minutes, which led to a 10-2 run for the Bruins, all but putting the game out of reach as they held it the rest of the way, with Maryland unable to claw back in the contest.

The Terps offense struggled; they couldn't get shots to fall, shooting 37% from the field, 26% from behind the arc, and couldn't stop the Bruins from hitting threes.

Poffenbarger finished with 15 points, and Addi Mack added 12 as the only other double-figure scorers for Maryland. The reserves for Maryland totaled only six points.

Meanwhile, UCLA had five double-figure scorers led by Gabriela Jaquez with 22 points.

Key Team Stats

  • UCLA shot 63% as a team (40-of-64) and 57% from three (for a season-high 13-of-23)
  • Maryland went 9-of-12 at the free-throw line and held UCLA to only nine attempts.
  • The Bruins outrebounded the Terps 46-24.
  • UCLA had a +14 advantage in points in the paint (48-24).

Frese talked to her team postgame about the importance of learning and moving forward in the clip below...

Up Next:

Maryland welcomes No. 10 Iowa on Thursday evening at Xfinity Center for a Big Ten showdown. Tipoff starts at 6 p.m.

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Jaden Golding
JADEN GOLDING

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.

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