Saylor Poffenbarger and Christina Dalce both had double-doubles as No. 7 Maryland overcame a 16-point deficit to beat host Purdue 78-69 in the Big Ten opener for both teams on Saturday afternoon in West Lafayette, Ind.
Poffenbarger finished with 17 points and 13 rebounds while Dalce had 10 points and 11 boards for the Terrapins (10-0, 1-0 Big Ten). Bri McDaniel added 16 points off the bench, Kaylene Smikle scored 13 and Shyanne Sellers had 12.
Rashunda Jones powered Purdue (5-4, 0-1) with 17 points while Reagan Bass had 16 points and four rebounds.
Maryland was outscored 18-6 in the first quarter and fell behind by 16 in the second. McDaniel took over in the second half, hitting a jumper to cap off an 8-0 third-quarter run that gave the Terrapins their first lead of the game at 48-46. McDaniel scored 13 of her points in the second half in Maryland’s largest comeback win since 2019 (19 points).
No. 6 USC 66, Oregon 53
Kiki Iriafen had 17 points and 12 rebounds as the Trojans notched a road victory over the Ducks, their former Pac-12 foes, to open Big Ten play for both teams in Eugene, Ore.
Juju Watkins led USC (8-1, 1-0 Big Ten) in scoring with 21 points on 6-of-15 shooting. Talia von Oelhoffen added 11 points and three rebounds. Oregon (7-3, 0-1) was led by Deja Kelly’s 16 points. Peyton Scott scored 13 points and Ari Long added 10 with five steals off the bench.
The Ducks jumped out to an early six-point lead and led 13-12 at the end of the first frame. In the second quarter, USC outscored Oregon 28-6 and never looked back, leading by as much as 22 points in the second half. USC won the rebounding margin 45-31 and logged all seven of the game’s blocked shots.
–Field Level Media
“Anyone can beat anyone on any given night,” Terrapins coach Brenda Frese said. “I’ll never take a road win for granted, especially with our start. I thought that Bri set the tone for us in that third quarter.”
Maryland’s 10-0 start marks its best start to a season since the Terrapins won 12 straight to start the 2018-19 campaign.