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Maryland women’s basketball is 4-0, to the surprise of nobody. The No. 6 Terps have dominated four small-conference opponents, winning every game by more than 40 points.
Destiny Slocum, Shatori Walker-Kimbrough and Brionna Jones have been the stars early on, all averaging over 13 points per game. Slocum scored 25 in Sunday’s win at Niagara, earning her Big Ten Freshman of the Week honors.
The competition ramps up significantly this weekend, as the Terps travel to Las Vegas for the South Point Shootout. They’ll face Arizona State, a ranked opponent that’s made plenty of noise in recent years, and Washington State, a younger squad that’s looked decent so far.
Maryland plays at 4 ET on Friday and 6:30 on Saturday. Neither game is televised or available on live stream.
No. 23 Arizona State Sun Devils (2-1)
Arizona State is the defending Pac-12 champion. Like Maryland, the Sun Devils earned a No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament; like Maryland, they were upset in the second round, falling to Tennessee at home.
Charlie Turner Thorne is in her 20th year with the program, and is the winningest coach in school history with 382 victories. The Sun Devils are a deep team, returning three starters from last year and bringing in three blue-chip freshmen. They started the year with easy wins over Illinois State and San Jose State before falling to Marquette on Saturday.
Sophie Brunner, senior, forward, 6’1, No. 21. Brunner averaged a team-high 10.7 points and 7.4 boards per game last year, and is 12 points shy of 1,000 in her career.
Quinn Dornstauder, senior, center, 6’4, No. 22. A solid player that will be the Terps’ first real challenge in the post. She made 21 starts a year ago and was the team’s second-leading scorer with 9.7 points per game.
Robbi Ryan, freshman, guard, 5’8, No. 11. The four-star freshman is Arizona State’s leading scorer this year, with 35 points in the first three games. She dropped 19 off the bench against Marquette.
Washington State Cougars (3-1)
The Cougars went just 14-16 last year, but started this season with three straight wins. Their most recent outing was a 79-72 loss to Oklahoma State on Sunday.
June Daugherty is an experienced head coach in her own right, in her 10th year at the helm. Her team is pretty young, but has some promise.
Borislava Hristova, sophomore, forward, 6’0, No. 45. Far and away the best player on the team. Hristova put up 16.3 points per game last year, more than double the output of any of her teammates, and is once again the team’s primary target this time around.
Louise Brown, junior, forward, 6’3, No. 4. Brown is the only other returning starter from last season, and she’s averaging 10 points and 8.8 rebounds in the early going.