[Baltimore Sun] Maryland women’s basketball closes regular season with 71-54 loss at No. 14 Indiana

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BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Sara Scali scored 19 points, Yarden Garzon added 17 and No. 14 Indiana closed the regular season with a 71-54 win over Maryland on Sunday to improve to 15-0 at home.

The Hoosiers tied sixth-ranked Iowa for second in the Big Ten Conference, one game behind No. 2 Ohio State, but will go into the tournament as the third seed. The tournament starts Wednesday in Minneapolis but the top four seeds have a double-bye into Friday’s quarterfinals.

Maryland, the No. 7 seed, doesn’t play until Thursday against 10th-seeded Wisconsin.

“The game was even in the second half until the free throws down the stretch,” Terps coach Brenda Frese said. “Difficult night for us shooting. … I thought we got some really good minutes from Emily [Fisher] and Allie [Kubek] off the bench. I know this team will get great and get to the Bigs [Big Ten Tournament].”

Mackenzie Holmes had 11 points for Indiana (24-4, 15-3) and Sydney Parrish and Chloe Moore-McNeil added 10 each. Scalia had eight rebounds, Moore-McNeil had eight assists and Parrish, who started her career at Oregon, surpassed 1,000 points for her career.

Jakia Brown-Turner had 15 points and 13 rebounds for Maryland (17-12, 9-9), Bri McDaniel added 13 points and Shyann Sellers 11.

Garzon and Scalia both went 4 of 8 from 3-point range but the Hoosiers, who lead the country at 41.1%, were just 8 of 24 from long range. Their 44.2% overall shooting (23 of 52) is also below their leading 51.8%.

A sharp-shooting first half was enough to carry Indiana.

Indiana never trailed but in an unusual first quarter, the teams had consecutive 12-0 runs. Holmes and Scalia had three-point plays and Garzon added two 3-pointers to give the Hoosiers a 16-2 lead. Brown-Turner had two 3s to help bring the Terps within 16-14.

Scalia answered with a 3 and Holmes had a layup to put Indiana on top 21-14 after one quarter.

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Indiana led 39-24 at halftime, thanks to a 15-0 run that included two layups by Holmes, followed by two 3s for Garzon and Scalia’s 3-pointer that made it 36-15.

Indiana shot 54% (15 of 28) with seven 3s in the half, while Maryland was 2 of 11 behind the arc and shot 29% overall (10 of 35).

A basket by Holmes gave Indiana a 50-31 lead midway through the third quarter but late in the frame she limped off the court and went to the locker room. The Hoosiers’ all-time leading scorer returned to the bench with about a minute left in the senior day game and walked without a limp during the postgame celebration.

Indiana lost Holmes’ replacement Lilly Meister when she landed on a Maryland player and hurt her foot with about 3 1/2 minutes to play. Seconds later, McDaniel hit a 3-pointer that had the Terps within 13 but they never got closer.

“I thought we left a lot of points in the paint. Then just getting stops. We let them have multiple offensive boards and disrupting,” Sellers said. “I feel like we didn’t disrupt as much as we needed to to make them uncomfortable.”

Big Ten Tournament quarterfinals

Maryland vs. Wisconsin

At Target Center, Minneapolis

Thursday, 6:30 p.m.

TV: Big Ten Network