Takeaways from No. 8 Maryland women’s basketball’s 88-41 domination of Rutgers

Maryland women’s basketball made a quick trip north to Piscataway, New Jersey, to collect its second conference road win of the season against Rutgers. The Terps dominated in every facet of the game to improve to 4-1 in Big Ten play.

Here are three takeaways from the game.

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Rutgers never stood a chance 

It didn’t take long for Maryland to make it clear that this game felt a lot more like an early-season matchup with a mid- or low-major opponent than a conference battle.

The Terps opened the game on a 21-5 run fueled by a hot start behind the arc, forcing Rutgers into bad shots and turnovers. The Scarlet Knights had their only sustained success in the back half of the first quarter, cutting into the massive early deficit.

“I loved our start,” head coach Brenda Frese said. “We set the tone really, really aggressively with our defense.”

The next three quarters were all Maryland, though. Despite the Terps’ top three scorers — Yarden Garzon, Saylor Poffenbarger and Oluchi Okananwa — on the bench with two fouls each for much of the second quarter, Maryland blew the game open, extending its lead to 28 by halftime.

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In a conference as good as the Big Ten, non-competitive affairs like this come few and far between. None of Maryland’s starters played 30 minutes, with Poffenbarger playing just 13.

“At Maryland we have standards that we want to play to every single game,” Rainey Welson said. “We don’t want to drop down [in a game like this]. It’s going to help us in the long run to play to our standard.”

Maryland beat the Scarlet Knights in just about every category imaginable. It outrebounded them, won the turnover battle and shot the ball far more efficiently.

3-point barrage

The Terps shot the ball at a ridiculous rate on Thursday night. They finished 16-of-25 from beyond the arc, easily the most 3-pointers they’ve made in any game this season. In fact, 3-pointers accounted for over half of Maryland’s 88 points.

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Publish date : 2026-01-09 16:47:00

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