NEWARK, N.J. – Maryland is going into a key stretch of its conference season with games against No. 12 Ohio State and top-ranked UCLA this week.
The eighth-ranked Terrapins could be missing two of their top three scorers for those contests. Reserve guard Bri McDaniel is out for the season with a torn ACL in her right knee and No. 2 scorer Shyanne Sellers hurt her knee on Monday in an 89-51 loss to seventh-ranked Texas at the Coretta Scott King Classic.
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Coach Brenda Frese wasn't sure of the severity of Sellers' injury after the game, although the fact it was a contact injury as opposed to a non-contact one was at least a positive.
“She’ll be evaluated by the doctor tomorrow and we’ll go from there,” Frese said. “She was sorely missed. She’s such a competitor, to lose that piece so early in the game was impactful.”
McDaniel and Sellers were averaging a combined 24.8 points a game.
“You’re not going to replace a player like Bri,” Frese said. “Everyone has to do a little bit more on the defensive end.”
Frese said the next couple of games wouldn't define the Terrapins season since it's only January.
“We’re not going to get too high or too low. We’ve won 16 games and we’ve done that the right way,” she said. “Had two loses and clearly this one has been impacted by injury. ... It’s unfortunate that this stretch is where the Big Ten put us in our bye week. it is what it is.”
Both Maryland and Ohio State, who play Thursday, are coming off losses. The Buckeyes lost their first game of the season on Sunday to Penn State.
While Maryland is limping into the rest of the week, top-ranked UCLA looked solid in a 15-point win over No. 25 Baylor on Monday. The Bruins are staying on the east coast for the rest of the week as they play Rutgers on Thursday before heading to Maryland for Sunday's game.
“We got to get away and be together,” UCLA coach Cori Close said after the 72-57 win over Baylor. “I feel bad for leaving (LA) with so much happening. I knew that when I scheduled this, this was going to force us to elevate our level of toughness and focus. We are going to have to suck it up. What does it mean to us? How much are we going to prepare?”
2K and counting
UConn star Paige Bueckers became the fastest Huskies player to reach 2,000 career points, achieving the feat in 102 games when she crossed the milestone on Sunday in a rout of Seton Hall. She broke the program record of 108 games held by Maya Moore. Bueckers is the 12th UConn player to hit that milestone.
NET ratings
The NCAA’s weekly NET rankings — one of the tools the selection committee uses to determine the NCAA Tournament bracket — has South Carolina still at No. 1. UConn moved up a spot to No. 2 ahead of Texas.
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