Buckeyes Return Home to Host No. 11/10 Maryland

Noting Ohio State

• Ohio State comes into Thursday matchup with Maryland at 7-9 overall and 3-4 in the conference.
• The Buckeyes had their three game win streak snapped on Sunday as Michigan came back for a 62-58 victory.
• Ohio State and Maryland are meeting for just the 14th time overall and the ninth time as members of the Big Ten.
• The Terrapins 75-69 victory earlier this season in College Park on Jan. 5 broke the stalemate in the all time series as the Terps now lead 7-6.
• The Buckeyes’ 18-point comeback at Penn State on Jan. 17 was the largest comeback by any Buckeye team dating back to the start of the 2000 season.
• Freshman guard Janai Crooms has scored 10 or more points in each of the last five games after not scoring more than seven points in any previous game. She poured-in a remarkable 27 points on 12-of-15 shooting in the win at Penn State.
• OSU is third in the conference in opponent shooting percentage through seven Big Ten games at .388.
• The Buckeyes held No. 25 Indiana and No. 17 Michigan State to its lowest shooting percentage of the season. In fact, MSU was held to 27.5 points under its league-leading average.
• Dorka Juhász has recorded six double-doubles this season. She also has seven games of 10 or more rebounds and leads the team in both scoring and rebounding.
• Point guard Carmen Grande dished-out 12 assists in the Buckeyes’ comeback win at Penn State. She also has the most assists of any active player in the country, male or female with 777.
• Carly Santoro scored a game-high 25 points in the win over No. 17 Michigan State. That was her second 20-point game of the season. She also leads the team in three-pointers made with 23.

Series History vs. Maryland

• The Buckeyes and Terrapins are meeting for the 14th time overall and the ninth time in a Big Ten regular season game.
• Maryland leads the all-time series 7-6.
• The Terrapins had won five-straight in the series before the Buckeyes won a decisive 79-69 victory to claim the Big Ten Conference title in the team’s second meeting last season.
• The first three meetings in the series all came in NCAA Tournament games.
• Maryland won the first Big Ten game between the squads on Dec. 29, 2014 and then downed the Buckeyes in the Big Ten Tournament Championship game to claim its first title.

McGuff vs. Maryland

• Head coach Kevin McGuff is 4-7 all-time in matchups with Brenda Frese and Maryland.
• He dropped both ends of a home-and-home series with the Terrapins in 2004 and 2005 while at Xavier.
• The Buckeyes then fell at Maryland in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge in McGuff’s first season at Ohio State.
• In his second season, he dropped both meetings, including a 77-74 loss in the Big Ten Championship game.
• McGuff then led the Buckeyes to three-straight victories over Maryland before dropping the regular season meeting last year. He then rebounded to win his first Big Ten Tournament title over the Terrapins last season.

Last Time vs. Maryland

• The Buckeyes played one of their toughest games of the year but in the end, they came out on the wrong end of a 75-69 decision at No. 4 Maryland on Jan. 5.
• Freshman Dorka Juhasz led the Buckeyes inside with her fifth double-double of the year, scoring 18 points and grabbing 10 rebounds.
• Outside, fellow freshman Janai Crooms scored a season-high 10 points and dished-out four assists.
• Makayla Waterman scored in double-figures for the sixth time this season, finishing with 12 points and five rebounds.
• Graduates Carly Santoro and Adreana Miller combined to make five of the Buckeyes seven three-pointers in the game. Santoro scored 12 points while Miller had nine which was her best output since scoring 11 points a month ago vs. Cincinnati.
• Statistically, the 46.4 percent shooting was the Buckeyes’ second-best performance of the year. Maryland came into the game allowing its opponents to shoot just 32.3 percent which was ninth in the country.
• Kaila Charles led Maryland with a game-high 24 points on 10-of-11 from the free throw line.
• The first half was back and forth as Maryland had the final push to lead by seven, 43-36 at the break.
• The stormed out of the locker room and took a lead midway through the third quarter and the scored remained within one possession until midway through the fourth.
• With the Terrapins leading by four, Santoro hit a three from the win to cut the deficit to 70-69 with 2:12 remaining but those were the final points of the day for the Buckeyes. Maryland’s defense stepped up and the Terrapins made 5-of-6 free throws in the closing moments to seal it.