No. 5 Maryland cruises to 89-53 win over Lady Lions

Penn State forward Peyton Whitted did what she could to help establish a physical defensive presence against No. 5 Maryland on Wednesday night.

But once she got into early foul trouble, picking up three in just over 10 minutes, she had to sit out.

Without her, the Lady Lions struggled defensively, allowing a 17-0 scoring run by the visitors in the second quarter to push a double-digit lead on what was previously a tied game.

“We were definitely aware of the foul trouble,” said Maryland head coach Brenda Frese. “We wanted to continue to be aggressive, and continue to lock in from both ends of the floor.”

The Terrapins cruised to an 89-53 win off 49 percent shooting from the field and 42 percent shooting from 3-point range.

Penn State’s guards had their hands full themselves with Maryland’s Shatori Walker-Kimbrough, who scored a game-high 25 points and opened the game with 10 of the Terps’ 14 points.

Down low, physicality was needed to counter the attack of 6-foot-3 center Brionna Jones, who bodied up Penn State’s Candice Agee early and often. Freshman center Ashanti Thomas played Jones as physically as she could, but picked up two fouls early.

“The thing with basketball in general is that it’s mostly about matchups,” said head coach Coquese Washington. “Coming into this game (I thought) this was a game where Candice would have some good matchups and some success. I think particularly in the first half she got some good looks on the offensive end, and her size helped us certainly in the first quarter in our zone. So I think she certainly gave us a presence and was able to take advantage of the matchups in this game.”

Agee played 21 minutes, scored eight points, pulled in one rebound and turned the ball over twice.

Jones had 17 points and 12 rebounds and sat the fourth quarter, while Penn State was paced throughout by Lindsey Spann’s 14 points and Teniya Page’s 10.

Whitted’s presence on the glass was missed, too. She had eight boards before having to sit, and without her the the Lady Lions as a team grabbed seven while Maryland capitalized on her absence with 11.

Jones opened the second half with three unanswered baskets against Agee before Whitted was subbed back in. She and Kaliyah Mitchell rotated their coverage on Jones while Whitted spent time trying to give the Lady Lions guards an option on the low post.

“(Jones) is a really tough player,” said Whitted. “She did a good job sealing and getting good position on the post. She just works hard every possession.”

Whitted picked up her fourth foul, as did Banks. The two had to sit midway through the third quarter and Maryland went on a 10-0 run.

Washington sent them back in with 2:42 left in the third and Penn State trailing by 29 points. Whitted fouled out, finishing with 10 rebounds — the rest of the team had 10 combined by the time Whitted picked up her fifth foul. Penn State finished with 28 rebounds to Maryland’s 50.

Maryland mostly played its bench in the fourth quarter, a unit that outscored Penn State’s bench players 40-11.

The Lady Lions’ sixth conference loss puts them at 8-12 on the season, while Maryland sits atop the Big Ten with an 18-2 (7-1) record.

This story was originally published January 27, 2016 at 9:40 PM with the headline "No. 5 Maryland cruises to 89-53 win over Lady Lions."