After being outscored, 25-15, in the second quarter, the Maryland women’s basketball team entered the locker room down, 33-32, to Arizona on March 19 and understood that it needed to put together a better second half if it wanted to advance to the Sweet 16.
Maryland senior wing Brinae Alexander explained that Terps players have a chance to discuss the first 20 minutes with one another during the intermission before head coach Brenda Frese enters the locker room and offers her opinion. Alexander said that the players’ chat with one another was particularly important during the Arizona game.
“I think for us, we just talk about we know what we can do. We know how we can play,” Alexander said on Glenn Clark Radio March 23. “And sometimes when we have those lulls, sometimes we just have to remind ourselves this is not the team we want to be. We’ve got to turn this around quick or this could be our last game. I think the severity of win or go home, I think that really puts a perspective into everyone. ‘We need to lock back in, we need to get this together quick.'”
Maryland outscored Arizona, 29-9, in the third quarter en route to a 77-64 win that lifted the Terps to a Sweet 16 date with Notre Dame at 11:30 a.m. on March 25. Alexander was one of four players to score in double figures against the Wildcats, pouring in 12 points on 4-of-8 shooting. She also scored 18 points in a first-round win against Holy Cross two days prior.
Alexander, a native of Murfreesboro, Tenn., spent the first four years of her college career at Vanderbilt. The 6-foot wing played 65 games (54 starts) from 2018-2022, missing time due to a PCL sprain during the 2018-19 season, a torn Achilles during the 2019-20 season and team-wide complications stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic during the 2020-21 season.
Alexander entered the transfer portal following the 2021-22 season, when she started 32 games and averaged a team-high 15.2 points per game for the Commodores. That led Alexander to Maryland, where she wouldn’t have quite the same role but she’d have a chance to win.
“Starting off I was like, ‘I will give up playing 35-plus minutes, being the leading scorer, pretty much having to know that if I don’t do what I’m supposed to do we won’t come out on top like we want.’ That’s how it was at Vandy,” Alexander said. “But here, it’s like, ‘I’ll take playing 20 minutes if I can contribute and we’re winning and we’re getting the end result and we’re playing in tournaments and getting to be on that big stage, playing against big opponents.'”
This season, Alexander is averaging 22.7 minutes per game in a reserve role, but she did play 31 minutes against Arizona. She is posting 9.1 points and 3.3 rebounds per game. Her game has taken a leap forward from long range; she was a 34.3 percent shooter from 3-point range at Vanderbilt but is shooting 44.1 percent from distance this year.
Turns out, Alexander has taken well to serving as a shooter off the bench.
“I think learning my role, it just took some time to feel out our chemistry on the floor as a team,” Alexander said. “I think all of us knew that it was going to be different, but no one knew really what to expect and how it was really going to go, so I think it just went with trusting the process, really, and just keeping my head down and working hard behind the scenes. I feel like all of us are peaking at this perfect time, so I’m just really, really happy about that.”
Maryland enters its matchup at 27-6 overall. One of its biggest wins of the season came early, a 74-72 win at Sweet 16 foe Notre Dame on Dec. 1. But that game took place nearly four months ago, and both teams have changed since then. The Terps have won 14 of their past 16 games. Irish standout point guard Olivia Miles is done for the season with a right knee injury.
Still, Alexander looks at the first Notre Dame as a big moment for her team, which was in the process of integrating four transfers into the rotation.
“For us to be who we were and a bunch of girls that came from different programs, different walks of life, to kind of be thrown together … we’re on the road going against their crowd, this is the first couple games we’ve played together and being able to get that gritty win I think boosted our confidence a lot and I think it will boost our confidence going into this next game,” Alexander said.
If the Terps are fortunate enough to defeat the Irish, they’ll face the winner of South Carolina and UCLA. The Gamecocks won it all last year and enter the weekend at 34-0. Oh, and Maryland would have to face the defending champs in Greenville, S.C., about 100 miles away from South Carolina’s campus.
The Terps will cross that bridge when the time comes.
“As a realist, of course everyone knows what comes after this game,” Alexander said. “But at the same time we also make sure we’re taking it one day at a time, one game at a time, one possession at a time and just staying where our feet are and being present and just knowing that we have to take care of business Saturday first before we can think about and move on to that next game.”
For more from Alexander, listen to the full interview here:
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Maryland Athletics