Women’s basketball rankings: Conference play returns, Maryland’s Sellers makes play of the weekend

The Big Ten and ACC return to in-conference play, with ranked teams facing off

NCAA women’s college basketball took a few days off after week seven, but when it returned this weekend, ranked sides clashed, a surprise ACC side continued its tear and Maryland Terrapin senior Shyanne Sellers made an early candidate for the play of the year.

AP top 25 women’s college basketball rankings:

1. UCLA
2. South Carolina
3. Notre Dame
4. USC
5. Texas
6. LSU
7. UConn
8. Maryland
9. Oklahoma
10. Ohio State
11. TCU
12. Kansas State
13. Georgia Tech
14. Duke
15. Tennessee
16. Kentucky
17. North Carolina
18. West Virginia
19. Alabama
20. Cal
21. Michigan State
22. NC State
23. Iowa
24. Michigan
25. Ole Miss

Others receiving votes: Vanderbilt 26, Utah 24, Illinois 11, Oklahoma St. 7, Baylor 5, Nebraska 4, Mississippi St. 3, Harvard 3, Portland 1.

Maryland Outlasts Michigan State

In the first of only two ranked matchups in the week, the No. 19 Michigan State Spartans traveled to College Park to face the No. 8 Maryland Terrapins.

After a close first quarter, where the two Big Ten sides traded leads, the Terrapins amassed a 17-point second quarter lead. The crowning moment of the game came during an 11-5 run to start the second period. Michigan State was in a full court press when guard Kaylene Smikle sent a long pass from the backcourt to get away from the MSU double-teaming defense.

Smikle found senior Shyanne Sellers who caught the pass and in one motion sent a no-look, behind-the-back, pass to guard Bri McDaniel, who finished the play with a layup.

“I saw the girl was going to try to run through the pass,” said Sellers. “I went to go meet it and I saw Bri [McDaniel] out at the corner of my eye and um you know luckily she caught it. I knew I wasn’t going to have time to turn around, so you know thanks boo.”

“No problem puka rooks,” said McDaniel to Sellers.

Maryland could enjoy the moment because they came away with a 72-66 victory, but it didn’t come easily. The Terrapins held off the Spartans in the third quarter until their offense went cold. Maryland didn’t score for 6:16 of game time, and Michigan State took advantage with an 11-point run that tied the game with 6:06 remaining.

After starting the fourth quarter going 0-of-3 from the floor in nearly five minutes, the Terps regrouped and never let the Spartans gain a lead. Maryland went 5-of-6 in the final 5:06 to pull away to victory.

“Credit Michigan State,” said head coach Brenda Frese. “We knew they were going to play hard for 40 minutes and every league game is going to be like this, it’s going to be every possession matters.”

Michigan State had the steepest fall in this week’s rankings, falling two spots. It’s not a far drop with many teams in the top-25 not playing during the holiday week.

ACC Play Returns

The Big Ten wasn’t the only conference starting their new, expanded, conference play over the weekend. Sunday featured five in-conference games, with all four ranked teams pulling away with victories. The most impressive came from the No. 13 Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, who continued their program best start to the season with a 100-61 rout over the Pitt Panthers.

By the end of the first quarter, Georgia Tech already had a 13-point lead and they didn’t relent.

Georgia Tech had a wire-to-wire victory, featuring four players in double figures, led by a season high 28 points by starting guard Kara Dunn and a career high 24 points for freshman guard Dani Carnegie off the bench.

“It’s not easy scoring 100 points. Pittsburgh is a really physical defense,” said said head coach Nell Fortner. “There was a point in the third quarter where we were rolling pretty smooth, and it was fun to watch.”

The triple-digit point total is the first 100-point game for the Yellow Jackets in conference play since 2008, and that was in double overtime. It’s also the first 100-point effort since Nov. 2015, when the Yellow Jackets defeating Southeastern Louisiana 102-49.

Elsewhere in the conference, No. 17 North Carolina and No. 22 NC State were both in-play with the Tar Heels defeating the Miami Hurricanes and Wolfpack going back-and-forth against the Clemson Tigers.

NC State and Clemson had 14 lead changes in the Wolfpack’s 83-79 victory, but the ranked side took the lead at the start of the fourth and didn’t let Clemson get back into the game. It’s the 16th straight victory for NC State over the Tigers.

No. 3 Notre Dame played the only other ACC game featuring a top-25 side, handedly defeating the Virginia Cavaliers 95-54.

Hollywood Stars Return

In Los Angeles, a pair of college basketball stars returned to their respective home courts. It started when the No. 1 UCLA Bruins welcomed the Nebraska Cornhuskers to Pauley Pavilion.

Returning was center Lauren Betts. The Bruins’ leading scorer this season missed the last two games with a leg injury, but returned to stifle the Cornhuskers key big Alexis Markowski. The 6-foot-2 forward who entered Sunday averaging 15.0 points and 8.3 rebounds per game scored three points with two rebounds in 16 minutes. Markowski was limited by fouls and when she was in, had trouble getting by the 6-foot-7 Betts, who led scoring with 21 points and eight rebounds.

Junior guard Kiki Rice was perfect offensively in the 91-54 win, scoring 18 points on 8-of-8 shooting. In the process, Rice hit her 1,000th career point, continuing to cement her UCLA legacy.

Across town, the No. 4 USC Trojans welcomed the No. 23 Michigan Wolverines for the last conference game of the week. USC freshman Kennedy Smith. who returned before the holiday break against the UConn Huskies, made her home return against the Maize and Blue, who were without outstanding freshman Syla Swords.

Despite Swords’ absence, the Wolverines kept the game close, mainly through the play of senior Jordan Hobbs. In the second quarter, Hobbs scored 14 points with 4-of-6 shooting from beyond the arc. All the points came in the final 6:20 of the quarter, which helped trim the Trojans lead from 10 points down to a single possession entering halftime.

Guard JuJu Watkins and forward Kiki Iriafen scored 28 combined points in the second half where USC outscored Michigan 44-27.

USC’s Smith wasn’t strong offensively, scoring three points in 32 minutes, but helped hold Michigan’s leading scorer, freshman Olivia Olson, to 11 points. Smith ended the game with a +/- of 17, the second highest for a Trojan starter behind Watkins.

The defeat for the Wolverines didn’t impact them too much in this week’s ranking, falling one spot.

Other Stories of the Week

• Most of the SEC rounded out their non-conference schedules this weekend, with the No. 2 South Carolina Gamecocks, No. 5 Texas Longhorns, No. 6 LSU Tigers, No. 9 Oklahoma Sooners and No. 20 Alabama Crimson Tide all coming away with lopsided home victories.
• No. 7 UConn defeated Providence 67-41 to win their second Big East conference game of the season. It’s the Huskies’ 37th straight win against the in-conference side. UConn hasn’t lost to Providence since 1993.
• A battle of freshmen Kiyomi McMiller of Rutgers and Jaloni Cambridge of Ohio State ended up being a battle in the paint between seniors Destiny Adams and Ajae Petty. Both forwards came away with double-doubles, but Petty and the No. 10 Buckeyes defeated the unranked Scarlet Knights 77-63.