COLLEGE PARK, Md. — The Maryland women’s basketball program had never beaten UConn — arguably the sport’s pillar of dominance and success — in seven meetings, but had its best chance to end that streak on Sunday with the Huskies having only seven players available.
The No. 20 Terps took advantage of their opportunity, as four players scored in double digits to complete an 85-78 upset of the No. 6 Huskies before an announced 12,566 at Xfinity Center.
The victory was noteworthy for Maryland (9-3). In addition to ending that dubious streak against UConn, the program picked up its second upset of the season after stunning No. 7 Notre Dame, 74-72, on Dec. 1 and its fifth win in its last six games.
Senior shooting guard Abby Meyers led the Terps with 20 points on 50% shooting from 3-point range (4 of 8), six rebounds and three assists. They also got 19 points, six assists and four rebounds from sophomore shooting guard Shyanne Sellers, 17 points and six rebounds from senior shooting guard Diamond Miller and 13 points, four rebounds and four assists from senior forward Brinae Alexander off the bench.
UConn entered the game without five players. In addition to junior shooting guard Paige Bueckers (torn ACL in left knee) and freshman forward Ice Brady (dislocated patella in right knee), who were ruled out for the season in August and October, respectively, the Huskies were missing graduate student forward Dorka Juhasz, who missed her seventh consecutive game since breaking her left thumb, sophomore shooting guard Azzi Fudd, who hurt her knee against Notre Dame last Sunday and is expected three to six weeks, and junior point guard Nika Mühl, who suffered an apparent head injury during Thursday’s 69-64 victory over Princeton.
Even the Huskies who played weren’t quite 100% . Graduate student forward Lou Lopez Sénéchal labored through 28 minutes with a foot strain she suffered two weeks ago and contributed 16 points, four rebounds and three assists.
Maryland took advantage of the Huskies’ relative inexperience. With UConn turning the ball over 22 times, the Terps scored 21 off of those miscues. By comparison, Maryland committed five turnovers that led to seven Huskies points.
As depleted as the Huskies were, however, the team reminded Terps fans that it was still a dangerous group. UConn broke a 7-7 tie with eight straight points over a 1:18 span to assume a 15-7 lead that forced Maryland coach Brenda Frese, who collected the 600th win of her coaching career in Thursday’s 77-74 victory at Purdue, to use a timeout.
The tide turned in the second quarter when the Terps went on their own 8-0 run to change a 23-19 deficit into a 27-23 lead with 5:36 remaining. They continued to build on that momentum, eventually outscoring the Huskies 8-4 over the final 2:20 to take a 43-36 advantage into halftime.
After shooting just 20% (1 of 5) from 3-point range in the first quarter, Maryland converted 6 of 10 from long distance in the second. Much of that burst was fueled by Meyers scoring all four of her 3-pointers and Sellers and graduate student point guard Elisa Pinzan chipping in with one 3-pointer each.
In addition to Lopez Sénéchal, UConn was paced by junior power forward Aaliyah Edwards (25 points, eight rebounds and seven assists) and sophomore shooting guard Caroline Ducharme (13 points, seven rebounds and three assists).
Freshman Inês Bettencourt, who made the first start of her career in place of Mühl, finished with two points, three rebounds, two assists and three turnovers.
