If the Boilermakers are to start a post-season charge, it better come now.
After a weeklong layoff, Purdue returns to action Thursday night, facing its biggest opponent of the season, as No. 3 Maryland comes to Mackey Arena. The Boilermakers (14-8 overall) are 5-3 at the halfway point of the Big Ten, but are searching for a big win that might catapult an NCAA bid. The Terrapins (21-1, 9-0) present the greatest opportunity, although a win won’t be easy, not against a Maryland squad winning by an average of 28 points per game.
“It’s going to take everything against Maryland,” Coach Sharon Versyp said. “There one of the best teams in the country, no question, the best team in the Big Ten, no question. We’ve been able to play with some teams of their caliber, but they’re extremely well-coached, disciplined, they understand their roles and get it.
“They love to put points up, but they’re also a team that can make steals and if you make a mistake it two points becomes 10 points very quickly. Those are the things we have to make sure we settle down.”
The win would be the NCAA-boost the Boilermakers need. After suffering four bad losses in the preseason — two of those being to teams with RPI worse than 119 — Purdue has to accumulate make-up games, of sorts. Its own RPI, per realtimerpi.com, sits at only 93. And the website projects the Boilermakers finishing 18-12, 9-7 in the conference, but without a signature win.
“Coach has let us know (our situation) several times,” senior Bridget Perry said. “We need some big wins to get to the NCAA Tournament, so we’re very much aware of that. We don’t want to use that as pressure. At the end of the day, we want to beat teams because we are competitive and stick to our type of basketball. Use that as a motivator, not as pressure.”
Maryland, up a game in the loss column on Ohio State in the Big Ten race, has few flaws. Its offense ranks No. 1 in the conference, nearly four points better than the Buckeyes, and its defense fourth, allowing 62.5 points per game.
The Terrapins’ offense is multidimensional, equally as effective outside — senior Shatori Walker-Kimbrough averages 16.9 points per game — as it is inside, where Brionna Jones averages 19.4 points and 10.1 rebounds.
“It’s about picking our poison,” she said. “When we go over the scout, we’re really going to have to know players’ tendencies and make them do something different. Make it harder for them to score.”
The Boilermakers hope they can keep up their recent momentum, having won two straight games, including at Michigan State Jan. 22 in probably the biggest win of the season. Then, four days later, Purdue pounded Nebraska, scoring a season-high 88 while giving up only 45.
“We feel we’ve been good on the defensive end, we’ve been better on the boards and we’ve grown,” Versyp said. “But we have to now have a laser focus to even be better. You’ve got to keep improving in those areas.
“We’ve got to start scoring the ball, and I was pleased that vs. Nebraska we scored, at Michigan State, we scored. So I think that offense has to kick in, but we all need to communicate better. It takes no skillset to communicate and that’s all we’ve talked about it.”
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