Three takeaways from Maryland women’s basketball’s close win against Fordham

The Fordham Rams are the second of three teams from the Atlantic 10 that Maryland will face this season. In this $20,000 buy game for the Terps, there was some real competition from the Rams and it was a bit closer than it probably should have been.

“Sometimes you got to have an ugly win and we were able to keep our poise and our composure in that fourth quarter,” Maryland head coach Brenda Frese said. “Overall, we know we can play better and a lot of lesson we can learn and come out against a veteran team and win.”

Diamond Miller’s return

Seventy minutes before tipoff, Diamond Miller took off her warmup shirt, revealing her white No. 1 jersey with red Maryland lettering and giving the first indicator that she would play. A team spokesperson later confirmed reports she would participate.

Miller finished the game with a double-double of 22 points and a career-high 13 rebounds. Her first half consisted mostly of her yanking down defensive rebounds. At one point of the game, she had seven of the Terps’ 14 boards. She hit a buzzer-beating 3-pointer to end an abysmal third quarter for the Terps.

“Healthiness is the motto for this season for me and all my teammates and everything,” Miller said. “To finish a game feels a lot of fun.”

Fordham kept it close

With four minutes remaining in the second quarter, Fordham was only down four and playing good basketball. A 9-0 run spanning 1:18 flustered Maryland a bit. The Rams executed some quality mid-range looks and started to really challenge Maryland in a low-scoring first half.

Fordham kept Maryland on its heels defensively. With 1:20 left, Maryland was only up three points and with each shot the Rams made, Maryland had the ball bouncing off the rim. The Terps did not register a field goal in the last 3:03 of play after graduate student guard Abby Meyers hit a jumper off a Fordham turnover.

Meyers’ production in the first half also was a bit uncharacteristic of what fans have grown accustomed to seeing from the Ivy League transfer. A positive for her was that she is now two points away from reaching 1,000 for her career.

Maryland went on a 20-8 run at the third-quarter media timeout. Fordham punched back, tying the game at 58 with under a minute left in the quarter and then gaining its first lead since the score was 4-2 at 9:03 mark of the first quarter.

Don’t touch glass

Part of Fordham taking a one-point lead into the half was due to the lack of offensive rebounds from Maryland. It only snagged five of them in the first half, none of which came in the second quarter. The Terps needed to capitalize off second-chance points during Fordham’s offensive streaks and it did not.

“I was disappointed in our rebounding tonight given the fact that we showed our defensive box out against South Carolina ... so to give up 17 (offensive) boards, again, I just thought it was a hungrier mentality,” Frese said.