NCAAW: Okananwa, Poffenbarger, Maryland use 3 and D to trounce Loyola

The point totals for the Loyola (MD) Greyhounds in the second, third and fourth frames, respectively, against the Maryland Terrapins Monday night at XFINITY Center in College Park. Measly single-digit numbers that any defense should be proud of against any Division I-level competition, especially when strung together over three consecutive quarters.

Could this be a sign of things to come for the Terps? Will their defense outshine their offense (which posted a solid but not outlandish 80 on Monday) this season?

It’s too early to read too much into holding a mid-major to 26 points, and offensively Maryland was without returning leading scorer Kaylene Smikle and fourth-leading scorer Bri McDaniel. Plus, Yarden Garzon, who is the Terps’ best 3-point shooter and arguably their best player this year, won’t go 1-for-5 from deep with just three points often.

But it was still quite the defensive performance. In fact, it tied the second-lowest point total surrendered during head coach Brenda Frese’s illustrious 23-year tenure and tied the fifth-lowest in program history.

What jumps out from the box score besides Loyola’s failure to crack double digits in any of the final three periods is a 7-for-7 combined effort from beyond the arc for another one of Maryland’s best players in Duke transfer Oluchi Okananwa and returning star Saylor Poffenbarger. Okananwa was 4-for-4; Poffenbarger was 3-for-3. Breanna Williams was also perfect, as she sunk her one trey attempt, and Lea Bartelme was 1-for-3.

Disappointing, yes, that the rest of the Terps who attempted at least one triple were all at 20 percent or lower, with Kyndal Walker (0-for-2), Rainey Welson (0-for-2) and Addi Mack (0-for-1) combining with Garzon to shoot 1-for-10. Garzon’s performance was particularly dissatisfying. It was quite the lackluster Terp debut for someone who is a career 42.4 percent 3-point shooter with 221 makes. But it’s just one game, and it is much more rational to be optimistic because of Okananwa’s and Poffenbarger’s performances than it is to be pessimistic because of Garzon’s.

Okananwa is not known as a 3-point shooter, but it appeared, and she confirmed in the postgame press conference, that she has been putting in a lot of work in that aspect of her game. You couldn’t have asked for a much better start if you’re Frese and the Terrapin faithful. Okananwa shot 31-for-89 (34.8 percent) from distance as a Blue Devil freshman and 27-for-90 (30 percent) as a sophomore. For her career, she averages under one make per game at 0.9. She is known for her physicality, driving ability and defense, as our Josh Felton outlined when he wrote about her as a player who could take a superstar leap this year if she becomes a high-volume and efficient 3-point shooter.

4-for-4 is nothing to sneeze at! She finished with a game-high 18 points and was also Maryland’s leading scorer in their preseason game against No. 9 NC State with 21. She is clearly leading Garzon in the race to be considered the Terps’ best player (Smikle and McDaniel will have something to say about that as well when they return) despite ESPN ranking Garzon as the 20th-best in the nation and leaving Okananwa off their top 25.

Meanwhile, Poffenbarger already liked to shoot the 3, having attempted 5.5 per game in 2023-24 at Arkansas. But she’s struggled with efficiency throughout her collegiate career, coming in at 32.9 percent in 23-24, 29.9 percent last year (her first season in College Park) and 28.6 percent for her career.

Maryland couldn’t have asked for a much better scenario than these two historically average 3-point shooters combining to go 7-for-7, and the knowledge that they will regress to the mean (though hopefully still be better than they’ve been in the past) is what makes the rest of the team going 3-for-14 sobering. But Garzon will be better, and Smikle is a career 34.9 percent shooter with 1.5 makes per game. McDaniel, known for her speed and driving ability, has flirted with adding a consistent 3-point shot to her game (she’s at 38.2 percent with 0.6 makes per game). So the Terps should have plenty of 3-point weapons. Fingers crossed that Okananwa and Poffenbarger will be able to shoot in the high 30s in terms of efficiency throughout the season.

As is expected early in the season against weaker opponents, Maryland saw a lot of balance in playing time and scoring on Monday. Okananwa and Poffenbarger (11 points) were the only players in double figures, with 11 Terps breaking into the scoring column and 12 playing double-digit minutes (Garzon led with 24).

It was encouraging to see freshman Marya Boiko score eight points on 3-for-4 from the field and 2-for-2 from the free throw line. Boiko is the tallest Terp at 6-foot-4 and may be asked to play a fairly big role this year to replace what the team lost when 6-foot-6 Gracie Merkle decided to return to Penn State instead of stick with her commitment to transfer to Maryland.

Bartelme, another freshman, got the start, was tied for second on the team with 19 minutes, scored seven points and looked good running the offense.

Welson and Mack are also freshmen. Welson is the No. 34 recruit in the class, according to ESPN’s SportsCenter NEXT 100; she was held scoreless across 16 minutes in her college debut. Maryland hopes Mack can translate her unreal scoring abilities in high school (4,687 points) to college despite not being a top-100 ranked recruit. She notched six points in 17 minutes on Monday, going 2-for-5 from the field and 2-for-2 at the stripe.