No. 20 Maryland’s comeback win at No. 8 Ohio State shows it is back on track after January struggles

By Canadian Press on February 15, 2026.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Maryland proved on Sunday that it is back on track after a four-game losing streak in January.

The 20th-ranked Terrapins rallied from a 19-point deficit for a 76-75 victory at No. 8 Ohio State. This is Maryland’s largest comeback since also being down 19 at James Madison in 2019.

“You go through ups and downs throughout a season, and I think we did a really good job of just staying connected and staying together,” said freshman guard Addi Mack, who scored 11 of her 14 points in the second half. “I think that is showing through in these last couple of games. Even at halftime today, we were down, but I think you just saw throughout the second half how much trust we have in each other and how good we can be when we play together.”

The Terrapins trailed 38-19 midway through the second quarter and 46-31 at halftime, with just a 3.7% win probability.

Maryland rallied in the third quarter with a 20-7 run over the first eight minutes of the second half.

Maryland used a full-court defense in the first half, while Ohio State went 17 of 31 from the field, including 9 of 14 on 3-pointers. The Terrapins switched to a triangle-and-one after halftime, limiting the Buckeyes to 10-of-28 shooting and just two from beyond the arc.

Ohio State had a 5:04 scoring drought late in the third quarter and early in the fourth. During this stretch, Maryland took the lead and built a nine-point advantage.

“I mean, that really disrupted them. We wanted to take Jaloni (Cambridge) and Chance (Gray) away from that, so I thought that set the tone, even though the last possession of the game, we went zone when they were expecting to run their man play, and we hadn’t shown zone the entire game,” Frese said.

It also helped that Maryland started making 3-pointers. It hit only four of its first 18 before going 8 of 17 the rest of the game.

The Buckeyes had a chance to win it after Maryland’s Kyndal Walker missed a free throw with 4 seconds remaining. Jaloni Cambridge got the rebound, and Ohio State called a timeout.

Cambridge tried a potential winning 26-foot 3-pointer, but it went off the glass.

Gray, who finished with a season-high 25 points, lamented the lack of rebounds down the stretch.

“We know that it’s a liability for us because of how small we play sometimes. So literally just couldn’t come up with the ball to save our lives,” she said.

It was a great weekend for Maryland. Besides Sunday’s win, the Terrapins were ranked 13th by the NCAA women’s basketball selection committee, making them one of the four seeds in the first release on Saturday.

The win over the Buckeyes is Maryland’s sixth Quad 1 victory of the season. It came into the game 15th in the NET Rankings.

The Terrapins are 21-6 overall but tied for sixth in the Big Ten with a 9-6 mark. They would need to win out and have several breaks go their way to get a double bye in the conference tournament.

Maryland hosts Purdue and Northwestern before a huge road test at No. 8 Michigan on Feb. 28.

“This should give us a ton of momentum and confidence, but you have to continue to follow these up,” Frese said. “We’ve got three games remaining, and for us, we just want to continue to improve and get better every time we step out.

“This team has continued to show they’re never out of a game. They’re never going to give up, and it’s pretty fun to be able to coach a team like that.”

Meanwhile, Ohio State (22-4, 11-3 Big Ten) has one of the toughest ending stretches in the conference. It begins Wednesday at Minnesota, which has won seven straight.

The Buckeyes then host Southern California and No. 8 Michigan before ending the regular season at No. 13 Michigan State.

Ohio State was ninth in the NCAA committee’s first rankings and is tied for third in the Big Ten.

“I told the players we’ve got to learn from this because we’re destined to repeat some of our failures if we don’t learn. At the same time, we’ve got to quickly get onto the next game,” coach Kevin McGuff said. “That’s sort of the story of being in the Big Ten. You play so many great teams, and how you handle adversity goes a long way to how your season’s going to go.”

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Joe Reedy, The Associated Press