Maryland women’s basketball vs. Loyola preview: Terps hit the road before finals week

After three easy home wins against UMBC, Towson and Saint Peter’s, the Maryland women’s basketball team will take to the road and play Loyola in Baltimore Monday.

No. 4 Maryland is 10-0 and has the nation’s highest-scoring offense at 93.8 points per game, which is somewhat skewed by mostly mid-major competition but impressive nonetheless. Brionna Jones’ 30-point performance against Saint Peter’s catapulted her past fellow senior Shatori Walker-Kimbrough for the team scoring lead by a single point (165-164). Expect those two to keep jockeying for a little while.

Maryland will get time to rest after Monday’s game, with a nine-day layoff during final exams. The team won’t play again until Dec. 21 at Duquesne, and will return home on Dec. 29 against a Connecticut team that’s still a powerhouse.

The Terps throttled Loyola 97-47 a season ago. These road trips to other in-state schools allow Terp fans from outside the College Park area to see the team in action. Maryland generally plays one or two such games per season, paying a visit to Maryland Eastern Shore last season and most recently visiting Loyola in November 2012.

The downside to making these road trips is that the broadcasting/streaming rights go to the smaller host conference—meaning no BTN or BTN Plus. Monday’s game, which tips off at 7 p.m., can be streamed here.

Loyola (Md.) Greyhounds (4-5)

2015-16 record: 16-16, 11-7 Patriot League

Head coach: Joe Logan is in his 12th season with the Greyhounds; he has a career record of 153-192.

Players to know

Bri Betz-White, junior, guard, 5’3, No. 11. Leads the team with 15.3 points and 2.7 assists per game. She’s the only returning starter from last year’s team. Against Maryland last year, she finished with five points, one assist and a 2-of-6 shooting performance.

Alexis Gray, freshman, guard, 5’6, No. 20. She’s come off the bench in every game so far, but she’s second on the squad with 8.7 points per game. Gray is a high-volume three-point shooter, taking nearly five per game and making 39.5 percent of them.

Strength

Sharing the ball. The Greyhounds have 114 assists on 193 made field goals, which is aight.

Weakness

Three-point shooting. Loyola makes just 29.8 percent of its shots from deep, and that’s counting Gray’s successes. Aside from her, the Greyhounds are shooting 26.3 percent as a team.

Size. The Greyhounds don’t have a rotation player taller than 6’1. This isn’t to say that Brionna Jones will definitely go off for Maryland again, but it wouldn’t surprise anyone.

Prediction

Maryland wins, 95-49.