NFL
After a two-game trip in Puerto Rico, Maryland Women’s Basketball is back at Xfinity Center Wednesday night. They will face Mount St. Mary’s. The Terrapins are inching closer to conference play. There are more opportunities for Coach Frese to see how everyone has been coming along.
Let’s preview the game.
The Mountaineers last year, under head coach Antoine White, won 15 regular-season games. Winning twelve games in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, respectively. This year, the team is off to a slow start, with a record of 2 wins and four losses. The Mountaineers are taking some bruises, losing two straight to UMES and Loyola (MD).
Nathan’s Keys
Mount St Mary’s Defense May not be enough.
The score might say one thing about the Mountaineers; however, defensively, as a scoring defense, they keep their opponents to 60 points a game. The team also averages three blocks, and about nine steals a game. The Terrapins have begun to clean their turnover issue as of late. It will be interesting to see how the Mountaineers will check the Terrapins as they have scored 80 or more points in eight of the nine games.
Offensively who steps up?
For their offense Mount St. Mary’s are essentially little giants in this matchup. Gabrielle Kennerly is their only offense, and one that stands out, the redshirt sophomore guard is looking to build off her MAAC All Rookie Team, while her points per game has increased. Outside of that there is no other double digit scorer for the Mountaineers. So it will be interesting to see where the scoring will be coming from.
Will Early Injuries Impact the Terrapins Depth?
The Non-Conference games are a good opportunity to see where your team’s strength and weaknesses are, and Head Coach Brenda Frese would agree with that as she wants to see how everyones makes the opportunities within the team depth. But nine games into the season, and the Terrapins so far have dealt with a lot.
- Kaylene Smikle is working her way back into the rotation as she was dealing with nagging injuries early this season.
- Bri McDaniel still is not cleared to play as she is recovering from an ACL injury sustained last year.
- Lea Bartelme suffered a season ending injury a Torn ACL against Towson.
- Ava McKennie suffered a Knee Injury playing against Hofstra, at this unknown.
Maryland Guard Depth
- Yarden Garzon
- Saylor Poffenbarger
- Kaylene Smikle
- Mir Mclean
- Bri McDaniel (Not Cleared)
- Oluchi Okananwa
- Kyndal Walker
- Addi Mack
- Rainey Welson
It will be interesting to see how the rotations will look going forward for the Terrapins, and how the roles will adjust.
The Terrapins should be and will be fine. The Team is looking to win their 10th straight win matchup Wednesday night against the Mountaineers.
