HARRISONBURG, Va. — Ashley Owusu was in the midst of her best game of the young season when she crumpled to the floor in the third quarter Sunday. She remained near midcourt in pain as a trainer looked at her left ankle. The first-team all-Big Ten guard of a season ago could barely put any weight on her left leg and had to be helped to the Maryland bench.
Owusu stayed there with her shoe off and her left ankle wrapped for the rest of the No. 4 Terrapins’ 81-45 blowout of James Madison at Atlantic Union Bank Center.
Owusu finished with 14 points on 5-for-9 shooting in 20 minutes. She was aggressive from the opening tip, scoring on a baseline dribble-drive reverse layup for the game’s first points and adding a pair of baskets at the end of the first quarter to give Maryland a 29-10 lead. The Terps (3-0) never looked back.
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Coach Brenda Frese said Owusu rolled her ankle after getting tangled up with a defender and was being evaluated.
“With the lead, we wanted to be smart,” Frese said. “We’ve got a lot of games coming up here. A lot of contact, I think, on both ends. Just unfortunate.”
Owusu’s best game of the season was cut short, but Chloe Bibby’s was not. The forward had an early three-point play and made her first three-pointer on the next possession. Angel Reese (12 points, 14 rebounds Sunday) and Mimi Collins (nine points, seven rebounds) shined in the season’s first two games, but Bibby was cooking Sunday. She finished with 19 points and grabbed five rebounds.
“I think I was just locked in from the start,” Bibby said. “My teammates were finding me, so when I’m open, just have to knock them down.”
Kiki Jefferson led JMU with 16 points but was the only Dukes player in double figures.
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“I was really disappointed with how we came to play today,” JMU Coach Sean O’Regan said. “We’ll move on. I’ll get them ready. Obviously, we weren’t ready to go. I just think they were better, and we weren’t ourselves. ... We got smacked in the face and never recovered.”
Here’s what you need to know from Sunday’s game:
Defense stars
The Terrapins played a lot more zone defense than usual, and JMU didn’t have an answer. The Dukes shot 32.7 percent and turned the ball over 22 times. Maryland scored 25 points off those turnovers.
“We’ve shown a lot of man [defense],” Frese said. “I felt like, coming out, they were going to really try to kind of get us in some early foul trouble, which they did with the charges. Kind of trying to be smart. I thought defensively it was one of our best communication games. I thought we really found a really good rhythm. It was working, so it didn’t make sense to change it.”
Long-distance woes
Maryland was the best three-point shooting team in the nation last season, but it has struggled to connect from deep so far. The Terps were 7 for 22 from behind the arc Sunday; Katie Benzan, who was tops in the nation last season, finished 1 for 7.
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Frese said she’s not concerned.
“They will [fall at some point],” she said. “And, no, [I’m not concerned] because I really think we’re just doing a really nice job playing inside-out. I love the positive assist-to-turnover ratio. We’re playing a slew of games right now. So just being patient. ... Luckily for us, I think our team is built that way where, when we really need to shoot the three [or] we need to get it inside, we’re able to do that.”
Hit the road
The 150-mile trip to Harrisonburg was a nice warmup because Maryland’s road is about to get much tougher. The Terps have one of the most challenging nonconference schedules in the country, and that includes games against No. 5 North Carolina State and No. 3 Stanford in a three-day span at a Thanksgiving tournament in the Bahamas. They also host No. 7 Baylor next Sunday and visit No. 1 South Carolina on Dec. 12.
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Including Big Ten play, Maryland has 11 games on the schedule against teams currently in the Associated Press poll. Only four of those will be played in College Park.
Miller still out; Sellers rises
Maryland played without all-Big Ten guard Diamond Miller for the third consecutive game. Frese has deemed her day-to-day as she deals with a sore knee. Miller averaged 17.3 points and 5.8 rebounds last season.
Freshman Shyanne Sellers has seen a lot of time on the floor in the first three games, partially because of Miller’s absence. The 6-foot-2 guard got even more time when Owusu went down Sunday and would see more if she misses any games going forward.
Frese expected Sellers to get immediate playing time, but Miller’s injury opened up even more opportunities. Sellers finished with 11 points Sunday; despite her relative inexperience, she has brought energy and poise to the floor.
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“I’m just excited to be here,” she said. “It’s really fun. I have a great coach and great teammates that help me out and help me evolve my game. ... They’ve just been really helpful in helping me find my way.”
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