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Rosalie’s Reaction: Nebraska falls to Maryland 59-47

By Rosalie Suggs

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Nebraska women’s basketball team ended their 2-day road trip Sunday afternoon with a loss to conference leader Maryland 59-47. This was the second meeting for the two squads this season. The Huskers played better against the Lady Terrapins but couldn’t find enough offense to bring home a win.

Huskers struggled to score against Maryland. Missing All-American point guard Rachel Theriot for the 2nd straight game, the offense had a tough time establishing a rhythm. The Terrapin defense kept both Emily Cady and Hailie Sample bottled up under the basket forcing the NU offense to make shots from the perimeter.

Lady Huskers have been struggling from the 3-point arc a good part of the season. Yesterday was no different. Senior guard Tear’a Laudermill went 2-11 and Natalie Romeo went 2-9 from long range on Maryland’s home court. However, Laudermill led the Huskers offensively on Sunday with 16 points and became the 31st player in Nebraska women’s basketball history to score 1,000.

Big Red’s defensive kept them in the game as they kept pace with Maryland offense during the first half and even led the game 22- 21, with 3 minutes left before the break. A more balanced Terrapin squad made a couple of last second shots to lead at the half 32-27. Nebraska managed to keep the game close during the second half and NU would close to within 6 points with 7:30 to go before the Terrapins went on an 11-0 run . The Huskers were unable to recover from that deficit.

Maryland didn’t have their best game on home court but they demonstrated why they remain undefeated in Big Ten play. Even though they shot only 40% from the floor, they had 5 players who contributed in their scoring. Sophomore guard Lexie Brown scored 14 points to led the Terrapins. It is to Nebraska’s credit that a stiff NU defense held down an explosive Maryland offense.

After the game, Coach Yori reflected upon the outcome. “You don’t come out of here with a win, but we were competitive. We competed really, really hard and did a good job on their personnel. We just can’t put the ball in the basket.” When asked about our defensive effort, she said, “We did what we needed to do defensively. I mean, this is one of the best scoring teams in the country, and we held them to 59 points on their home court, so you’ve got to feel good about our competitive spirit defensively.”

Nebraska falls to 17-6 on the year, and 7-5 in conference play. With this two game losing streak they are now in a tie for 5th place in the conference. With just 6 games left in the conference season before the Big Ten Tournament, wins and losses become ever more important. The top 4 teams going into the tournament are rewarded with a first round bye.

More from Nebraska Women's Basketball

Someone once said you learn more from a loss than you do from a win. Huskers learned a couple of things over the past 2 games. They learned that they can play awesome defense without Rachel Theriot. However, they also learned that without Theriot, their offense can really struggle. The answer for that may be the freshmen off the bench who need the chance to play and shine!!

Huskers return home to face No. 16 Iowa for the second time this season on Thursday. Iowa beat Nebraska in overtime on Jan. 26. Coach Yori would dearly love to avoid being swept by Iowa in 2015. Stay tuned for further updates and as always, GO BIG RED!!