In a huge top-25 matchup in College Park , the twin towers in A’ja Wilson and Alexis Jennings prevailed. The duo combined for 44 points and 25 rebounds in the game, which and proved to be too much for the Terrapins on their home court. A’Ja Wilson set a career-high 32 points and furthered solidified herself as WNBA-ready.
Maryland turned on the jets and cut the deficit as low as as three points. They went on a 26-14 run in the fourth quarter, but the strength of Wilson and Jennings cut any type of rally short for the Terps.
Wilson was the offensive juggernaut for the team and with the up and down game in the fourth, she was felt she and the game was good for her.
It was good. The biggest thing was getting a good road win. You take what the game gives you and at that time that’s what the game gave me. So I kind of went with it. You kinda don’t fix anything that is not broken so you just kind of go until the cows come home so I don’t think the cows came home.
South Carolina head coach Dawn Staley stressed the importance of staying disciplined and focused when faced with
“Throughout it all you have to be disciplined. You have kind of stay in character, I told them ‘you’re going to be fatigue I told them this at halftime that we were going to be fatigue. Physically, you’re going to get tired because you look tired, and that is when your mental needs to kick in. You can’t do the same things that you he first quarter that you do in the fourth quarter if your fatigue., but we grew up and had other people contribute besides A’ja Wilson.”
It was A’ja Wilson who would be the star of the night. The senior Hopkins, South Carolina forward scored 32 points, was 10-of-19 from the field, had notched 12 rebounds in the win. She was 5-of-8 from the field, 6-of-8 from the stripe in the first half.
As for Maryland, sophomore Kaila Charles herself scored a career-high 31 points, including 27 in the fourth quarter alone. Playing the national champions as a young team in the second game of the season in tough. However, the leadership of Brenda Frese and her staff showed that they will not be defined by this loss moving forward:
‘It was obviously a great experience for our young team to be able to go through. We obviously know the second game of the season in November isn’t going to be who we are in January, or February or March, Frese said. These types of games obviously being able to learn from the first quarter where we dug ourself to turning that around and waking up in the second half. I love the fight of our team I thought our chemistry really came together late in the third quarter. I thought you saw a true picture of our team in the fourth quarter when we settled in and got into playing Maryland basketball.”
Both teams have Thursday games as South Carolina plays Clemson and Maryland plays Niagara.