{"id":320975,"date":"2025-10-21T10:55:17","date_gmt":"2025-10-21T10:55:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/320975\/"},"modified":"2025-10-21T10:55:17","modified_gmt":"2025-10-21T10:55:17","slug":"maryland-womens-basketballs-newcomers-shine-in-scrimmage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/320975\/","title":{"rendered":"Maryland women\u2019s basketball\u2019s newcomers shine in scrimmage"},"content":{"rendered":"

Basketball is finally back in College Park.\n<\/p>\n

Maryland women\u2019s basketball hosted an open practice on Saturday to debut its 2025-26 roster. The Terps scrimmaged their scout team, falling 70-67 to the group in overtime.<\/p>\n

Coach Brenda Frese called them \u201cthe best scout team\u201d Maryland\u2019s had during her tenure after the matchup.\n<\/p>\n

The final score was irrelevant, though. The scrimmage was intended to show fans what Maryland\u2019s new roster looked like in the early stages of the season.\n<\/p>\n

Here are three takeaways from Saturday\u2019s showing.\n<\/p>\n

Oluchi Okananwa shined as point guard<\/strong><\/p>\n

At Duke, Oluchi Okananwa played primarily on the wing and came off the bench. Her first game in a Maryland uniform was a much different sight.\n<\/p>\n

Okananwa started for the Terps as a point guard during the scrimmage and dominated. The junior led the team in scoring, posting 21 points and eight rebounds.\n<\/p>\n

[<\/strong>How Maryland women\u2019s basketball bonded over \u2018Love Island\u2019<\/a><\/strong>]<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n

The guard came off the bench for Duke, averaging 10.1 points and 22.4 minutes per game in 2024-25 and earning the ACC Sixth Player of the Year award in 2024.\n<\/p>\n

After two years on the bench, Okananwa looks poised to take over the role as Maryland\u2019s starting point guard.\n<\/p>\n

Despite the scoring outburst, her freshness at the position showed. She recorded five of Maryland\u2019s 19 turnovers.\n<\/p>\n

Frese, who emphasizes not turning the ball over, was vocal during timeouts about fixing the Terps\u2019 struggles to keep possession.\n<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t expect Maryland to start the season fully healthy<\/b>\n<\/p>\n

The Terps were hindered by injuries during the 2024-25 season. It looks like they\u2019ll start this year\u2019s campaign in a similar spot.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

Three of Maryland\u2019s expected contributors didn\u2019t suit up Saturday.\n<\/p>\n

Then-junior Bri McDaniel suffered an ACL tear in January against Minnesota \u2014 an injury that can take up to a year to recover from. McDaniel underwent surgery and remains unlikely to start the season in the rotation.\n<\/p>\n

Returners Kaylene Smikle and Isimenme Ozzy-Momodu also notably didn\u2019t play Saturday. Ozzy-Momodu redshirted her junior campaign to recover after tearing her ACL in February 2024 while still with Gulf Coast State.\n<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s unclear why Smikle was sidelined for the scrimmage. The senior guard was named to the preseason All-Big Ten team on Oct. 2 and led the Terps in points last season.\n<\/p>\n

Four-star freshman Rainey Welson didn\u2019t appear either. The No. 34 recruit in the 2025 class\u2019 senior year ended early after she suffered a knee injury. It\u2019s unclear if that injury is still lingering.\n<\/p>\n

Frese is likely giving her players time to nurse any of their injuries before Maryland faces Loyola in their first game on Nov. 3. It will be interesting to see if any of the absent Terps make an appearance in their exhibition matchup on Oct. 26 against No. 9 NC State.\n<\/p>\n

The freshman talent is strong<\/b>\n<\/p>\n

247Sports ranked Maryland\u2019s 2025 class No. 22 overall and didn\u2019t even make ESPN\u2019s Top 25 rankings. But the incoming class looked much stronger than that ranking in the scrimmage.\n<\/p>\n

Marya Boiko was hard to ignore inside the paint. The 6\u20194 forward finished with 14 points and four rebounds, all on defense. Boiko\u2019s aid under the rim will be a huge gain for Maryland if she can pick up time in rotation.\n<\/p>\n

[Maryland basketball moves into long-awaited \u2018first-class\u2019 practice facility<\/a>]<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n

The Belarus native was a late pickup for Frese\u2019s class. Boiko and fellow freshman Nicole Fritea joined the roster in late July after Frese\u2019s team scouted the two internationally. Fritea, a 6\u20192 forward from Romania, only played three minutes of the scrimmage.\n<\/p>\n

Lea Bartelme and Addi Mack also delivered strong performances, putting up seven points each. Bartelme\u2019s ball handling and ability to take up space stood out, while Mack showed off her speed and ball movement, dishing out four assists.\n<\/p>\n

Bartelme\u2019s professional playing experience with the Slovenian national team gives the 5\u20198 guard more of a veteran edge than a typical freshman. It seems Bartelme could be a good candidate to fill McDaniel\u2019s spot until she\u2019s ready to return.\n<\/p>\n

Frese doesn\u2019t usually lean on freshmen, but given the combination of injuries and talent, this season could be different.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Basketball is finally back in College Park. Maryland women\u2019s basketball hosted an open practice on Saturday to debut…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":320976,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[1339,1317,1337,1338,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-320975","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-basketball","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-ncaa","10":"tag-ncaa-basketball","11":"tag-ncaabasketball","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-unitedstates","15":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115411794446495064","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320975","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=320975"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320975\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/320976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=320975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=320975"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=320975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}