Maryland
Takeaways from Maryland women’s basketball’s win at Illinois
Maryland women’s basketball put together its second straight victory on Sunday, defeating Illinois, 69-53.
Here are three takeaways from the game.
There were long stretches of sloppy play
Call it exceptional defense. Call it being cavalier with the ball. Either way, both teams grappled with issues on the offensive end.
In the first quarter alone, Illinois endured a stretch where it went nearly five minutes without a single field goal. Simultaneously, Maryland embarked on a 9-1 run.
But the Terps endured plenty of their own struggles.
Turnovers marred the opening minutes of the contest, as Maryland rushed — often too quickly — to find Allie Kubek and Jakia Brown-Turner in the post. The Terps committed six turnovers in the first frame.
“I wasn’t expecting to have the 19 turnovers and, you know, I thought we were kind of missing a lot of layups,” said head coach Brenda Frese. “I think for us the turnovers took [us] out of rhythm offensively.”
The only reason the Terps were able to scrape out of the first quarter with a five-point lead was Illinois’ poor shot-making ability. It went just 4-for-19 from the field in the period and 1-for-3 from 3-point range.
While Illinois continued its poor run of form throughout the contest, Maryland bettered its sloppy ways after the initial three quarters. The fourth frame saw a turnaround during which the Terps were able to pull away quickly, shooting 9-for-15 from the field and not committing a single turnover.
Maryland was phenomenal on the glass
The Terps’ typical weakness didn’t end up being a weakness against the Fighting Illini, and it’s probably the main reason as to why they took home the victory.
It’s not even that Illinois is a particularly bad rebounding team — it ranks seventh in the Big Ten in combined team rebounds per game (36.7) and fourth in combined opponent rebounds (33).
The Terps simply eviscerated the Fighting Illini in this facet of the contest.
In just the first half alone, Maryland out-rebounded them 26-16, allowing just six second-chance points and 14 points in the paint. And it was Frese’s lineup decisions that facilitated the onslaught on the boards.
Despite electing to bring Kubek off the bench with Faith Masonius starting, she sometimes ended up pairing the two in the paint. This created a near-impossible path for Illinois’ guards to slither through the interior, leading to its poor paint performance.
Shyanne Sellers led the Terps with 11 boards, while Kubek and Brown-Turner chipped in with 10 apiece. Even Bri McDaniel was active on the glass, bringing down seven rebounds.
By the end of the contest, it wasn’t a particularly fair fight. Maryland finished the game with a 47-33 combined rebounding advantage and a +12 defensive rebounding margin.
“You got to find different ways to win the game,” Frese said. “Wasn’t the prettiest but I thought our defense and our rebounding, which you can control anytime … [it] was big.”
The Terps’ bench stood out
With the plethora of season-ending injuries the Terps have suffered, the bench has been rightfully thin. Starters have had to consistently play well over 30 minutes per game, leaving some questions pertaining to the degree of fatigue for some of Maryland’s premier players.
In Sunday’s matinee matchup, however, bench production was far from a concern.
The key difference between these past two games and the entirety of the season has been switching Kubek from the starting lineup to the bench. In doing so, she has been able to play more freely, no longer needing to worry quite as much about getting into foul trouble.
Ultimately, the Terps racked up 28 bench points on the afternoon compared to Illinois’ eight, despite having just three players come off the bench. In fact, Lavender Briggs and Kubek had the two highest scoring totals for a Maryland player, accumulating 18 and 15 points, respectively. Briggs, in particular, has been impressive in showcasing her offensive skillset, acumen and versatility. She went 2-for-3 on 3-point attempts and repeatedly spaced the floor well on drives by Sellers and McDaniel.
“I thought Allie [Kubek], you know, came in and in the first half provided a lot of great things offensively, defensively, as well as rebounding,” Frese said. “So huge when we needed to have that from both her and Lav [Briggs] off the bench.”
BALTIMORE COUNTY, MD — Maryland State Del. Nino Mangione was picked over the weekend to serve as the County Council’s newest member.
The move came Saturday, when the two-person Baltimore County Republican Central Committee held a public hearing and a vote at the Holiday Inn Timonium.
Mangione was one of seven candidates vying to fill the 3rd District seat left vacant in May by Councilman Wade Kach, who resigned due to health issues after serving on the County Council for more than 11 years.
Other candidates who competed for the 3rd District seat included Todd Huff, Lynne Jones, Tim Braue, Eric Rockel, Gerard Wittstadt, and E.J. McNulty.
Mangione was the only figure who simultaneously ran for a council seat in this year’s election bid. He is also running as a 5th District candidate, which includes most of the current 3rd District.
The county is operating under a new redistricting map that was approved for the 2026 election cycle last year. The map was passed in a 5-2 vote.
Baltimore County will hold its primary election on June 23.
MARYLAND (WBFF) — Starting Monday, June 1st, marks the first day mail-in ballots across the state will be canvassed for the 2026 primary elections, as local boards of election officials can begin the process of opening, reviewing, and counting the mail-in ballots already received.
Just last week, the Maryland State Board of Elections began sending out replacement mail-in ballots after an error assigned hundreds of thousands of residents to the wrong political party.
ALSO READ | Maryland State Board of Elections starts sending out corrected mail-in ballots after error
The Board of Elections has pointed the finger at its vendor, Taylor Print and Visual Impressions, Inc., for this error, but members of Congress and political analysts say more answers are needed on how this happened.
“A mail-in ballot error like this only leads to people getting into more conspiracy theories, election rigging, back to the 2020 talk all over again,” said Political analyst John Dedie.
Just a few days ago, FOX News Digital posted an interview with Maryland’s Lieutenant Governor, asking for a response to President Donald Trump’s calls for the Department of Justice to investigate the state’s mail-in ballots.
ALSO READ | Maryland Freedom Caucus calls mail-in ballot error a crisis, urges federal audit of rolls
“The administration is a separate body from the board of elections,” said Maryland Lt. Governor Aruna Miller. “It happens, sometimes Ballots get mailed the wrong way. It happens almost in every election. So we’ll see what the investigation shows…I don’t think it was in malice, in any bad way that this happened. I think it was just error by the vendor.”
Meanwhile, at the latest Maryland State Board of Elections meeting, Maryland State Board of Elections Administrator Jared DeMarinis answered questions from board members if an outer investigation will take place following the election.
“We always do a lessons learned after every election,” said DeMarinis. “And this will be a part of our lessons learned, and we will, of course, be working with you know and getting more you know information about how to prevent this in the future, with it.”
DeMarinis adding…”we’ve been open and transparent about it. I don’t necessarily know what more of an investigation would shed light on.”
According to the Board, more than 500,000 voters requested mail-in ballots.
Without being able to identify who received the wrong party ballot, the board says all mail-in voters were sent replacements.
The Board is urging all voters to vote with the replacement ballot, adding safe guards are in place to ensure voting will not happen.
Since this error, a Congressional committee has reached out to the Board requesting a response by June 9th.
ALSO READ | Congressional committee members want answers about Maryland’s mail-in ballot mistake
FOX45 spoke with Republican Congressman Morgan Griffith of Virginia. Griffith said, “We will be keeping an eye on it because we have concerns we want to make sure that the federal elections, state folks can do whatever in the state or local elections, but in the federal elections it’s our job to make sure that voters are getting an opportunity to vote that they’re not being disenfranchised by some accident or intentional act.”
Political analysts also tell FOX45 that more answers are needed to ensure voter confidence.
“There needs to be more answers and possibly a hearing on this,” said Dedie. “Not wait till next year when they’re back in Annapolis after the election.
For now, anyone who has questions on this error and the next steps, the Board is urging you to contact them or go to their website.
Happy Sunday, Maryland!
Another beautiful day is in store on this Sunday – and it doesn’t end there as we start June on Monday.
Sunshine continues Sunday
High pressure is in control today, keeping our weather pattern quiet for another day. A northerly wind to start the day will keep temperatures just shy of seasonal norms this afternoon. However, after the cooler start to the day, we will end up warmer than Saturday.
High temperatures warm into the mid-70s to low 80s. Today will be less breezy, as well.
Early June outlook
Tonight, a system will start moving through, producing an isolated shower or two overnight as temperatures cool into the 50s.
Another low-end shower chance comes on Monday with a few isolated showers possible however, most spots stay dry to start June.
While Tuesday’s rain chance is slightly higher, it won’t be by much. Spotty showers move through during the afternoon. Rain appears to be light during all three rain chances tonight, Monday and on Tuesday.
Overall, we stay pretty quiet throughout the week with more sunshine than clouds. High temperatures this week range from the mid-70s to low 80s through Thursday.
Low humidity continues into at least the end of the week.
Temperatures and rain potential head up by the weekend. We’re still a few days out so stay with the WJZ First Alert Weather team for the lates updates.
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