Maryland's Minneapolis Miracle

I want to talk about the nine Big Ten conference games that occurred over the weekend! These are the only Big Ten games from over the weekend I would like to discuss! From like any sport!

So let’s do that!

_{(congrats to Indiana football fans though your team rules)}

Last Week’s Hoopla: Who Could be at the Top?

These will be in order of significance. What is that significance? It can be the quality of the game, the notability of the end result or anything in between. But if you saw the scores last weekend, you know where I’m going first.

Maryland 100, Minnesota 99 (2OT)

There are no proper words on how to begin to describe this one. Maryland was on the ropes taking punches Rocky Balboa style most of this game, but hung in there juuuuuust enough to have a chance, and then they went out an executed those chances to perfection to get out of Minneapolis with the undefeated record in tact. It’s one of the most stunning victories I have legitimately ever seen in this conference.

The Terps trailed by 14 at halftime, but battled back well to eventually lead for most of the final portion of regulation. But Minnesota stayed resilient, Amaya Battle converted an and-one layup with 43 seconds to play, and the score remained deadlocked from there.

In the first overtime, the teams traded the lead back and forth until Tori McKinney put the Gophers up 1 with 52 seconds left. That lead expanded to 5 — 84-79 — with 19 seconds to go, which felt like the final nail in Maryland’s coffin. And then, bang, Yarden Garzon three. Minnesota turnover. Garzon layup. A five-point swing in 13 seconds of game time from the Indiana transfer, and double OT we went.

The second overtime was all Minnesota. The Gophers played like they knew they blew a golden opportunity and scored 14 points in the first 4:06 of the frame to take a 99-90 lead. Again, and even moreso this time, with just 54 ticks left, Maryland felt buried.

And then:

• Two free throws by Saylor Poffenbarger (99-92 MINN)

• Minnesota turnover on the inbound

• Kyndal Walker and-one (99-95 MINN)

• Minnesota turnover on the inbound

• Oluchi Okananwa and-one (99-98 MINN)

• Minnesota timeout

• Minnesota turnover

• Maryland timeout

• Poffenbarger layup (100-99 MARY)

• Minnesota missed three

Maryland went on a 10-0 run in 44 seconds to steal a significant road win over the Gophers, who now fall to 6-3. For as remarkable and impressive of a fight as it was by the Terps — and believe me, it was — Minnesota completely threw this away, especially in the second OT. Those inbound turnovers both came with the Gophers possessing a timeout, which makes the second and-one by Okananwa feel especially egregious. As a reminder, Minnesota blew a 14-point halftime lead and a five-point lead in the first OT, so there was no reason to hold on to that timeout once the lead was cut to six.

Poffenbarger led Maryland on the day with 30 points (11/24 FG) and 10 rebounds, while Okananwa added 25 points, eight boards and three steals. Walker, who had that crucial steal, layup and free throw late in double OT, only played one total minute in the contest, but came up with the play that started the massive comeback.

How massive was said comeback?

The Gophers had a 99.8% chance to win this game very late into the second overtime. They lost. There were bright sides in a game like this of course, with Grace Grocholski being the big one. She was Minnesota’s best player all game, finishing with 31 points and six assists on 11-of-17 shooting (9/12 3PT).

Maryland did, unfortunately, not come out of this day fully in tact. It was announced the same day that Kaylene Smikle will miss the rest of the season for knee surgery, a huge blow to this lineup and the third season-ending injury the Terps have had to deal with already. This roster still has plenty of talent, and clearly plenty of fight, but it’s brutal to see a roster lose such key pieces so early.

Wisconsin 78, Michigan State 64

All of those ridiculous Maryland heroics were not enough to distract me from this stunner.

Wisconsin hosted the undefeated Spartans and dismantled them. Sure, the 14-point margin was the highest it got, but the Badgers led this one nearly the entire way, including for all of the second, third and fourth quarters while teeing off on Michigan State from three.

The Badgers shot 11-of-24 from deep on the game, including 7-of-11 in the second half. Kyrah Daniels (14 points) went 4 of 5 herself, and tied for the team lead in points with Gift Uchenna, who added 15 rebounds and seven blocks in a statement performance.

Maybe most impressively, Wisconsin was not phased at all by Michigan State’s typically extremely disruptive defense. The Spartans had forced at least 15+ turnovers in every game this season, including 25+ in six contests, but forced just 11 against Wisconsin. The 11 turnovers committed also tied a season-low for the Badgers, making it remarkable on all sides.

Last week, I said Michigan State has been an analytical favorite before thanks to an easy non-conference slate and needed to prove it against some legitimate competition, but that the Spartans also looked capable of being a real threat. This was not a great start to proving me right! Kennedy Blair (16 points, 7 rebounds, 7 assists) had a very strong game, but Grace VanSlooten was completely contained with six points and three rebounds on 3-of-9 shooting.

Illinois 78, Indiana 57

The Illini absolutely blew the doors off the Hoosiers. It was not as close as this already-lopsided score would suggest.

Illinois led 28-12 after one. Illinois led 45-23 at halftime. Illinois led 68-32 after three quarters. It was at that point when the Illini finally let the Hoosiers have some fun to make it a slightly more generous final result.

First of all, credit to Illinois on such a complete win with a roster that is very much still figuring things out. Maddie Webber (16 points), Gretchen Dolan (16), Cearah Parchment (15) and Berry Wallace (14) led a well-balanced attack, helped by the Illini’s 23 assists to only 11 turnovers.

On the other end, this was an extremely tough result for an Indiana team I have been mostly impressed with early. The Hoosiers battled hard in a loss to Iowa State, but this was the first game it all fell apart. The 20 team turnovers is bad, three total bench points is concerning, but my largest takeaway: Why in the world did Shay Ciezki play all 40 minutes? This is Indiana’s clear star player this season, and this was a 36-point game by the end of the third. Absolutely no reason to risk injury in a completely lost contest.

USC 59, Washington 50

A good ol’ Big Ten rock fight happened out west, a sentence that certainly would have made sense three years ago.

These two defensive powerhouses scored a combined 12 points in the first quarter to set the tone on what this was going to be. It was 39-36 USC heading to the fourth before the Trojans finally found some life with 20 points on 8-of-11 shooting. Washington never found life, finishing the day shooting 26.9% from the field in the defeat.

I came away from this game genuinely impressed with how difficult it is to score on either team. I also came out of it blown away again by Jazzy Davidson, who finished with 22 points, 12 rebounds and four assists and continues to look every bit like a future superstar.

Ohio State 79, Northwestern 70

The Wildcats hung around in this one enough to keep Ohio State on its toes, but not enough to truly compete for a massive upset. The nine-point margin was the lowest it had been since halfway through the third quarter, but I still think it was a strong effort with pluses to take from.

The main plus is Grace Sullivan. She attempted to put the Wildcats on her back with 37 points on 17-of-28 shooting. The rest of Northwestern had 33 points on 12-of-39 shooting. Caroline Lau also had 14 assists and remains one of the Big Ten’s elite facilitators.

Ohio State was led by 22 points in 25 minutes from Jaloni Cambridge and 18 points from Kylee Kitts.

Nebraska 101, Penn State 83

Nebraska remained undefeated after a slight scare from the Lions, who led by one at halftime. It was nice to see Penn State show some real fight against a solid Big Ten foe, but it was also impressive to watch the Cornhuskers make that fight disintegrate with a 67-point second half.

Start taking about Amiah Hargrove now before it’s too late. She is showing some special talent on the Nebraska bench and finished with 26 points and three steals on 10-of-14 shooting, including 4 of 5 from three.

The Gracie Merkle-Kiyomi McMiller duo delivered the points with 45 combined between them, but they also had the two worst plus/minuses on the team (McMiller -23, Merkle -19).

UCLA 80, Oregon 59

I thought this one had a chance to make UCLA sweat. I was wrong. Oregon won the second half in this, and it simply did not matter as the Bruins coasted out to a 49-26 halftime lead and never looked back.

It was a peak Lauren Betts game: 24 points, 14 rebounds and five blocks. It was also a strong showing from freshman Lena Bilic, someone I’ve been waiting to see more of. She had 13 points in this one, nearly matching the Oregon high of 14 by Katie Fiso and Ehis Etute.

Iowa 79, Rutgers 36

This was an absolute smackdown, which Iowa deserves a lot credit for. This was a road game and those can be tricky regardless (See: Michigan State). This was not tricky, in fact it was remarkable just how stuffed in a locker Rutgers was in this game.

The score after three quarters? Iowa 65, Rutgers 18. Anyway.

Michigan 104, Purdue 56

Similar to the one above, the Wolverines had an inferior opponent in front of them and they did not waste anytime turning said opponent into mush.

Two big stats from this one for me:

• Michigan forced 23 Purdue turnovers and committed only seven. The points off turnovers were 25-2 toward the Wolverines.

• Michigan shot 45 free throws and was fouled 32 times.

What to Watch

(TTQ: Torvik Thrill Quotient)

• 12/9 — Penn State vs. Arizona State (TTQ: 77)

• ***12/10 — No. 11 Iowa at No. 10 Iowa State (TTQ: 104)***

• 12/10 — Illinois at Missouri (TTQ: 74)

• 12/13 — No. 16 USC vs. No. 1 UConn (TTQ: 93)

• 12/13 — No. 20 Washington vs. Green Bay (TTQ: 51)

• 12/14 — Penn State at No. 3 South Carolina (TTQ: 74)

Photo Credit: Maryland Women’s Basketball (@TerpsWBB), Twitter

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