A young team made history Friday as No. 5 seed Michigan women’s basketball destroyed No. 4 seed Maryland 98-71 in the Big Ten tournament quarterfinals. 98 points marks the most in a Big Ten tournament game in program history for the Wolverines. Michigan is moving on to the semifinals for a matchup with No. 1 seed USC on Saturday at 3 p.m. on the Big Ten Network.
Michigan basketball advances to semifinals with big win over Maryland
The maize and blue fell to the Terrapins less than a month ago, but Friday was a completely different game. The Wolverines shot 61 percent (36-of-59) from the field and 52 percent (12-of-23) from behind the arc. Michigan was up 27-6 going into the second quarter, but Maryland cut its deficit to four (41-37) before the break.
Senior Wolverines guard Jordan Hobbs had a team-high 15 points at halftime, including three (of five) made three pointers. Hobbs said the team followed the lead of head coach Kim Barnes Arico after Maryland came back.
“That second quarter was something else,” Hobbs told BTN after the game. “We kind of just regrouped at halftime and coach just said, ‘take a breath, we’re good, come out second-half strong’, and that’s exactly what we did.”
The halftime talk put a battery in the back of Michigan as it outscored the Terrapins 57-34 in the final two quarters. Freshman guard Syla Swords had a game-high 14 points in the second-half to finish with 22. Swords also posted six assists and four rebounds. Fellow freshman guard Olivia Olson recorded 20 points, five assists and three rebounds.
Hobbs had a final line of 23 points (team-high), four rebounds and three assists. She said the first-year Wolverines are coming into their own at the right time.
“With the young group that we have, they’re just continuing to grow,” Hobbs said. “We lacked experience in the beginning of the year, but they’ve played the most minutes out of any freshmen in the country, and that’s showing up in March. We’re just excited to keep going, and I think we’re peaking at the right time which is really exciting.”
The Associated Press ranked USC as the No. 2 team in the nation in this week’s poll, finishing the regular season with an overall record of 27-2. Sophomore phenom JuJu Watkins is second in the country in scoring (24.4 ppg) and first in the Big Ten. Hobbs said it’s going to come down to which team has more desire.
“I think it’s just going to be all about grit (and) who wants it more,” Hobbs said. “We’ve got to work harder than them on every single aspect. They rebound the crap out of the ball, so it’s going to start there.”
After avenging a loss to Maryland Friday, Michigan has another chance to do it against the Trojans Saturday. USC beat the Wolverines 78-58 on Dec. 29, but Swords was out of the lineup with an injury. Hobbs said Michigan is a different team than it was in December.
“I think defensively we’re a lot more locked in,” Hobbs said. “They scored a lot, so we weren’t able to do what we want to do and push the ball in transition. But I mean, Syla back, round two, we’ll see what happens, but we’re ready for the fight.”
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