Rutgers Women's Basketball Falls Apart Against No.8 Maryland 88-41
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After looking like they were starting to show some progress in competing against Big ten teams, Rutgers women's basketball ran into one of the hottest teams in women's basketball as they were throughly throttled by No.8 Maryland 88-41. The Terrapins got hot from the three point line and did not let up as they would go on to drain 16 three pointers en route to their dominant victory.
Maryland would start hot right out of the gate, outscoring the Scarlet Knights 22-11 in the first quarter alone. It would only get worse for Rutgers from their, as the Terrapins stone walled their offensive attack and only let in 12 points over the course of two quarters. Maryland's offense would use this opportunity to start running up the score on the hapless Knights, as they would outscore Rutgers 43-12 in the middle 20 minutes of play.
The game was already out of hand by the time the fourth quarter rolled around. The Knights would get their offense going a bit in the last quarter, scoring 18 points, which nearly doubled their end of the third total, but it would not be enough to even win the quarter as Rutgers was thoroughly dominated from start to finish.
The key to Maryland's success was its ability to shoot from three-point range. Their 16 made three-pointers totaled for 48 points, which is almost the same amount by which they won. According to the Testudo Times, this was the most three-pointers the Terrapin women have made in a single game in four seasons. They shot 64 percent on all of their three-point attempts and 48 percent on all of their field goals in general.
Another key to their success was their lopsided amount of rebounds. The Terrapins grabbed 18 more rebounds than Rutgers in total.
The final key to their success was the fact that Maryland's defense blanketed Rutgers for most of the game. The Knights shot an abysmal 11 out of 55 from the floor (20 percent) and an even worse 3 of 16 (19 percent) from beyond the arc. They even won the turnover battle, despite Rutgers generating 18 positive turnovers, as they had 20 negative turnovers themselves.
One Terrapin who caught fire in particular was Yarden Garzon, who shot a perfect 6-of-6 from three. She led Maryland in points for the game with 18.
Rutgers was led in scoring by Nene Ndiaye. She too struggled in shooting from the field, hitting just 2 out of 10 field goals. Most of her points came from the free throw line.
Up next, Rutgers women's basketball will head out to Evanston, Illinois to take on Northwestern. Tip off for that game will be on Sunday, January 11th at 3 pm.
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