5 differences between Maryland women’s basketball’s exhibition wins

After demolishing Bluefield State by 129 points earlier in the week, Maryland women’s basketball crushed Mary Baldwin by 126 points on Sunday, 153-27.

It was actually somewhat surprising that the No. 6 Terps didn’t win by more. While Bluefield State is a Division II school that won two games last season, Mary Baldwin is a Division III school that hasn’t won a game in four years.

The talent gap was obvious from the opening tip, which guard Kaila Charles jumped well over a Mary Baldwin player to win. When it was all said and done, the Terps found a way to put up more points than they did on Wednesday, but didn’t win by as big a margin.

Here are some other differences from Wednesday’s game.

1. Mary Baldwin actually scored in the second half: Despite not having a player over 5’10, the Fighting Squirrels were able to score in every quarter. The same cannot be said for the Big Blues, who were held scoreless for the final 22 minutes and 10 seconds of play.
2. No one on Maryland outscored Mary Baldwin: While three players outscored Bluefield State, no one outscored the Fighting Squirrels, although Jenna Staiti came close. The freshman finished with 25 points, just two fewer than Mary Baldwin’s 27 as a team.
3. At one point, Mary Baldwin had more three-pointers than Maryland: When Aayana Nedd hit a three with 2:04 left in the second quarter, the Fighting Squirrels had made three shots from beyond the arc, compared to Maryland’s two at that point in the game. This advantage somehow lasted seven minutes, as the Terps didn’t hit their fourth three until Kristen Confroy drained one with 5:59 left in the third.
4. The Terps had more players in double figures: After having seven players in double figures Wednesday, Maryland had nine Sunday. Nedd led Mary Baldwin with six points and every single Terp who played except for Sarah Myers (who had five) scored more than that.
5. Every single Maryland player shot at least 50 percent from the field Sunday: It’s hard for teams to shoot 50 percent from the floor, but even more rare for each player on a team to do that. Even in Wednesday’s blowout, the Terps didn’t have such widespread efficiency.

Maryland will certainly have its fair share of blowouts this season, but none will be as bad as these two exhibition games. The season starts for real next Sunday, when the Terps take on UMass Lowell.