Maryland women’s basketball will face Minnesota in Big Ten quarterfinals

Maryland women’s basketball will open Big Ten tournament play against Minnesota at 6:30 p.m. Friday in Indianapolis.

The No. 10-seed Golden Gophers knocked off No. 7-seed Penn State Thursday to earn their shot at the No. 2 Terps. In Minnesota’s 70-64 win, junior guard Carlie Wagner tallied 26 points and 10 rebounds, while sophomore Kenisha Bell added 13 points. The team pulled away game in a back-and-forth contest that saw Penn State’s Teniya Page drop 35 points.

Maryland played the Gophers twice in the regular season, including just last weekend, when the Terps came away with a 93-60 win on Senior Day. The first matchup was an 83-72 Maryland victory on Jan. 1 to open the conference slate.

Here’s our still-relevant preview from Sunday’s contest.

Should the Terps take down Minnesota again, they’ll face either No. 3-seed Michigan, No. 6-seed Michigan State or No. 11-seed Wisconsin at 6:15 p.m. Saturday. Maryland beat those three teams by a respective 13, 17 and 49 points during the regular season.

All signs point to a Sunday rematch with Ohio State, which earned the tournament’s top seed by beating the Terps in Columbus on Feb. 20. Maryland has lost three straight meetings against the Buckeyes, but has also won the last two Big Ten tournaments. Before the Terps can think about that, though, they have to take care of business on Friday night.