Maryland center Brionna Jones thrust her hip into Syracuse center Briana Day, knocking her out of the way and giving Jones space to catch a pass in the post. SU’s Cornelia Fondren rushed over to help, but could only hack Jones’ arm as she muscled in a layup.

Syracuse threw everything it had at Jones and the rest of the Terrapins, but the best it could do was slow them down. Though the Orange crawled back to within eight points to start the fourth quarter, No. 5 Maryland (7-0) beat No. 20 Syracuse (4-2), 82-64, in College Park, Maryland on Wednesday night. UMD’s 18-point advantage at the end was its largest lead of the night.

“Every time we made a run they made a big shot,” Syracuse head coach Quentin Hillsman said. “They just did a good job of sticking with their game plan to pound the ball inside.”

SU guard Brianna Butler led all scorers with 22 points, including four 3s, but Maryland’s star duo of guard Shatori Walker-Kimbrough (19 points) and Jones (18 points) was too much the Orange to handle. The pair combined to shoot better than 73 percent from the field. Maryland, as a whole, connected on more than 50 percent.

Butler was nearly all of Syracuse’s offense in the first quarter, hitting runners in the lane and pulling up for jump shots inside the arc — not the SU all-time leading 3-point shooter’s typical method of scoring. She had nine of the Orange’s 15 points in the period.

Maryland insisted on pounding the ball inside and took advantage of SU’s four-guard lineup. The Terrapins finished the first half with a 28-16 point advantage in the paint. That, along with Maryland outrebounding the Orange, 30-17, gave the Terrapins to a 43-31 lead at the half.

“We missed a lot of shots so they got a lot more rebounds on the defensive end,” Hillsman said. “All the rebounds were pretty easy.”

Things turned around for Syracuse in the third quarter, though, as its defense created steals and turnovers, which stifled the Terrapin offense and translated into transition baskets.

After SU guard Alexis Peterson drew an offensive foul — one of 11 UMD turnovers in the quarter — she sat on the hardwood floor, pounding it in excitement with two hands.

Any momentum the Orange tried to carry into the fourth dissipated immediately as Maryland forward Tierney Pfirman hit a jumper at the top of the key to finish off a five-point Maryland run to start the quarter that forced Hillsman to call a timeout. The Terrapins attack didn’t let up and they cruised to the win.

“We did some good things,” Hillsman said, “just not enough to win the basketball game.”

Syracuse is now 0-5 against top five opponents in the last two seasons.

The Orange returns to action on Sunday at 2 p.m. to host Stony Brook.

Published on December 2, 2015 at 10:44 pm

Contact Jon: jrmettus@syr.edu | @jmettus