The Michigan women's basketball team is looking like a team to reckon with heading into March Madness, and the Wolverines reinforced that once again with a win over Maryland in the Big Ten quarterfinals on Friday.
Three Michigan women's basketball players scored over 20 points and the Wolverines almost scored 100 as a team in a 98-71 win over the fourth-seeded Terps. Next up for Michigan women's basketball will be No. 1 seed USC, which features Juju Watkins one of the best players in the sport.
The Wolverines can worry about that tomorrow or probably later today if we are talking about head coach Kim Barnes Arico, who has done an incredible job with a team starting three freshmen.
Michigan built a four-point lead in the first half thanks to a buzzer beater from Jordan Hobbs to give the Wolverines a 41-37 halftime lead. In the second half, the offense took over. Hobbs led all scorers with 23 points. She made four 3-pointers in the win.
Syla Swords and Olivia Olson, two freshmen who combined for 36 points on Thursday, scored 42 on Friday. They combined for 11 assists, six 3-pointers (on 10 attempts), and made 16-of-27 shots (59 percent).
Michigan made 12-pointers compared to four for the Terps, another team that's headed to the NCAA tournament. Maryland beat the Wolverines 85-77 in College Park recently, but Michigan women's basketball cooked on Friday and they have been cooking for weeks now.
The Wolverines have won eight of their last 10 games. Nine of those 10 games were against teams projected to the make the NCAA tournament, according to ESPN. The Wolverines have beaten seven teams during that stretch to make the field of 68.
Michigan's win over 15th-ranked Maryland was the third win over a ranked team this season. The Wolverines can add another on Saturday when they take on second-ranked USC. Michigan was projected as a seven seed in the NCAA tournament before the win over Maryland.
That might improve after Friday and could really improve with an upset on Saturday.