Thursday's college basketball: No. 8 Maryland women beat No. 12 Michigan, clinch share of Big Ten title

Ann Arbor — Since joining the Big Ten, Maryland has at least shared the conference championship in six of seven seasons.

This year, the eight-ranked Terrapins look like they have a shot to win their second national title in school history and first since 2006.

Diamond Miller scored eight of her 17 points in the first quarter to help Maryland start strong and Ashley Owusu had 22 points in an 88-63 victory over No. 12 Michigan that clinched a share of the Big Ten title on Thursday.

“What separates this team from all the rest, they’re making it look so easy when it’s really not,” Terrapins coach Brenda Frese said. “And we’re doing it during a pandemic.”

Maryland (20-2, 16-1 Big Ten) can win the conference championship outright by ending the regular season with a win against Penn State (9-13, 6-12) at home on Saturday.

“They’re hungry to be great and they’re easy to coach,” Frese said. “They play and practice the right way.”

The Wolverines (13-4, 8-4) were led by Naz Hillmon, who had 19 points.

“We need to get better than we were today, but that team has a chance to make a run in the NCAA Tournament for sure,” coach Kim Barnes Arico said.

With a trapping press and an active zone defense, the Terrapins held Hillmon to two points in the pivotal first quarter as they built a 27-13 lead.

“It was one of our most dominant defensive efforts,” Frese said. “She didn’t get anything easy. She had to play all of her 36 minutes to get 19 points and only had eight field-goal attempts.”

Maryland didn’t have any trouble keeping a comfortable cushion over the final three quarters, leading by as many as 29 points early in the fourth.

Faith Masonius scored 12 points and Mimi Collins added 10 points for the Terrapins.

Michigan’s Leigha Brown had 14 points and Akienreh Johnson scored 11.

Frese’s 19th team at the school has won nine consecutive games, peaking at the right time. If the Terrapins can win the Big Ten Tournament next week, they will improve their chances of getting a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament.

When she was coaching at St. John’s, Barnes Arico faced the Terrapins’ national championship team during the NCAA Tournament and said their current squad is equally talented.

“I think they’re pretty special,” she said. “They’re deep. They’re unselfish. They have a great point guard and a great shooter.”

Hillmon scored her first points after the Wolverines were already trailing 23-6 and didn’t score again in the opening quarter.

“It was tough to get me touches, but we were trying to get the ball to open people,” Hillmon said. “They were really crowding the paint.”

The star forward finished with a solid scoring total, but her team will have a hard time beating elite teams if she starts to slow offensively.

“We need to make shots from the outside now that teams are keying on Naz,” Barnes Arico said.

Michigan hosts Northwestern in a matchup of teams hoping to improve their seeding for the Big Ten Tournament.

Big Ten men

►(At) No. 5 Iowa 102, Nebraska 64: Jordan Bohannon tied a career high with eight 3-pointers and scored 26 points, and Iowa beat Nebraska.

Freshman Patrick McCaffery had a career-high 19 points for Iowa (19-7, 13-6 Big Ten). Luka Garza had 14 points for the Hawkeyes, who topped 100 points for the fourth time this season.

Kobe Webster led Nebraska (7-18, 3-15) with 17 points. Lat Mayen had 14 points and 13 rebounds, and Dalano Banton had 14 points.

Top 25

►(At) No. 3 Baylor 81. No. 17 Oklahoma State 70: Jared Butler scored 22 points and Baylor, fresh off clinching its first Big 12 title on the road two days earlier, beat Oklahoma State to end the Cowboys’ five-game winning streak.

The Bears (20-1, 12-1 Big 12) seem to have their legs back under them after a three-week stretch without any games because of COVID-19 issues in the program.

Matthew Mayer and MaCio Teague both added 19 points for the Bears, and Davion Mitchell had 12.

Freshman standout and Big 12 leading scorer Cade Cunningham had 24 points and Kalib Boone 10 for Oklahoma State (17-7, 10-7).

►(At) No. 6 West Virginia 76, TCU 67: Redshirt freshman Jalen Bridges set seasons highs with 22 points and 12 rebounds to lead West Virginia past TCU.

Derek Culver scored 17 points for the Mountaineers (18-7, 11-5 Big 12), who bounced back from an overtime loss to No. 3 Baylor on Tuesday.

Jaedon LeDee scored a season-high 18 points for the Horned Frogs (12-12, 5-10).

►(At) No. 13 Kansas 67, UTEP 62: Marcus Garrett scored on a driving layup with 22.4 seconds to go and Dajuan Harris added a pair of clinching free throws as Kansas overcame a 15-point second-half deficit and beat UTEP.

David McCormack scored 16 of his 18 points in the second half, and Ochai Agbaji had 19 points as the Jayhawks (19-8) avoided a rare second loss in Allen Fieldhouse this season.

Bryson Williams led UTEP (12-11) with 23 points and 13 rebounds. Souley Boum finished with 16 points and six boards.

►No. 15 Texas 69, (at) No. 16 Oklahoma 65: Jericho Sims matched season highs with 16 points and 12 rebounds to help Texas beat Oklahoma.

Andrew Jones added 16 points for the Longhorns (16-7, 10-6 Big 12), who have won three of four.

Austin Reaves scored 16 points and Alondes Williams and Brady Manek each added 13 for the Sooners. Oklahoma (14-9, 9-8) has lost four straight games by a combined 17 points.

►(At) No 18 Texas Tech 81, Iowa State 54: Mac McClung scored 20 points and Texas Tech beat Iowa State for its third consecutive victory following a three-game losing streak.

Marcus Santos-Silva had 14 points and seven rebounds to help Texas Tech (17-8, 9-7 Big 12) wrap up its home schedule with a fifth consecutive victory over the Cyclones, the longest winning streak for either team in the series.

Jalen Coleman-Lands and Tyler Harris each scored 15 points for Iowa State (2-20, 0-17), which has lost more Big 12 games in a season since TCU went 0-18 in 2013-14.

►(At) No. 24 Colorado 75, Arizona State 61: McKinley Wright IV scored 17 of his 24 points in the second half and Colorado shook off a sluggish start to beat Arizona State.

Wright turned in his seventh 20-point game of the season in what was his final game at CU Events Center. The speedy senior point guard made one acrobatic move after another to help the Buffaloes (20-7, 14-6 Pac-12) bounce back from 10 first-half turnovers.

Holland Woods scored 15 points to lead the Sun Devils (10-12, 7-9), who saw their three-game winning streak snapped.