No. 4 seed UNC will face No. 5 seed Maryland Sunday at Carmichael Arena with a trip to the Sweet 16 on the line. The winner will play in the regional semifinals in Fort Worth, TX next week. Carolina is seeking its second consecutive trip to the Sweet 16.
The Terrapins defeated No. 12 seed Murray State 99-67 in the tournament’s first round Friday. They are 24-8 overall this season and 11-7 in Big Ten play. If you aren’t familiar with Maryland, here’s a quick breakdown:
Head coach: Brenda Frese is a Maryland legend, having now coached at the school since 2002. During her tenure, the Terrapins have reached three Final Fours and won the 2006 national championship — beating both UNC and Duke to do so. Individually, Frese has won several honors. She has won six conference coach of the year awards in three different leagues with three different schools (one in the MAC in 2000 while at Ball State, one in the ACC and three in the Big Ten with Maryland, and another in the Big Ten with Minnesota in 2002). She has won National Coach of the Year honors twice, most recently in 2021 after leading the Terrapins to a 26-3 record and an appearance in the Sweet 16. Under Frese’s leadership, Maryland has reached the Sweet 16 four times in the last five seasons.
Maryland’s Brenda Frese has won numerous head coaching awards during her career. (Image via Associated Press/Jayne Kamin-Oncea)
What’s the history? As former ACC rivals, UNC and Maryland have shared plenty of memorable battles. But the one with the highest stakes came in 2006, when No. 1 seed Carolina and No. 2 seed Maryland squared off in the Final Four in Boston. UNC entered the game 33-1 overall, but that one loss came against the Terrapins in an overtime thriller in Chapel Hill. The rematch would be marred by a first-half injury to National Player of the Year Ivory Latta, who left the game briefly. With their star clearly limited, the Tar Heels fell again to the future national champion Terps, 81-70. Latta would undergo surgery later that month to repair the injury, revealed as a torn meniscus. The two sides haven’t met since the 2014 ACC Tournament quarterfinals, when UNC won 73-70. Maryland left for the Big Ten the following season.
Player to watch: Kyndal Walker is coming off a career-best performance in Maryland’s first-round win against Murray State. Walker, a redshirt freshman guard, scored 20 points, grabbed five rebounds and dished out a pair of assists in 33 minutes. Walker has played well lately, scoring 18 points in a Feb. 22 win against Purdue and 14 in a Feb. 4 win at Michigan State. Walker does much of her damage inside the arc: she’s made 67 field goals on the season, and only three of them have been three-pointers. In addition, Walker hasn’t missed a free throw since Feb. 15.
Coaching collision: Not only has Maryland’s Brenda Frese had success against UNC, but she has also had success against Courtney Banghart. Frese’s Terrapins have won all three meetings with Banghart-led teams, each of which came when Banghart was at Princeton. Maryland won a regular season meeting in 2007, then ended an undefeated season for Princeton in the 2015 NCAA Tournament’s Round of 32 in College Park (notably, President Barack Obama was in attendance for the game). Maryland and Princeton played again in the 2018 tournament’s Round of 64, and again the Terrapins won.
A familiar foe: Maryland’s top scorer is a player Banghart and UNC know well. Oluchi Okananwa spent her first two seasons at Duke and played a key role in helping the Blue Devils win the 2025 ACC Tournament and reach the Elite Eight in the NCAA Tournament. Okananwa was named the 2025 ACC Tournament Most Outstanding Player after averaging better than 16 points per game in the event. In the NCAA Tournament Sweet 16, she scored 12 points and grabbed 12 rebounds to help Duke beat UNC and end Carolina’s season. Okananwa has faced UNC five times in her career and holds a 3-2 record in those games. This season, her first in college as a starter, Okananwa is averaging 17.7 points, 5.4 rebounds and 2.1 assists per game.
Go big or go home: Maryland features one of the nation’s best two-point offenses, as the Terrapins’ 23.3 two-point makes per game rank ninth in Division 1 and their two-point percentage of 51.8 ranks 34th. Maryland can shoot the three-pointer at a relatively good rate (33.0 percent, 89th in Division 1), but the Terps make fewer than seven per game and rank outside the top 100 teams in the nation in that metric. As you probably could have guessed based on those numbers, Maryland uses the free throw line prominently: the Terrapins’ 15.5 free throw makes per game rank 15th in Division 1. That powerful inside presence is reflected on the glass, too, as Maryland ranks 15th in the nation with nearly 42 rebounds per game. Almost 16 of those rebounds come on the offensive end, which also ranks 15th in the nation. UNC ranks 65th in Division 1 with 39.7 rebounds per game, but its 12.5 offensive boards per game rank 114th.
A return to form? Maryland’s season has been defined by streaks. The Terrapins won their first 14 games of the season and ascended to as high as No. 7 in the AP Poll, but finally lost their first game on New Year’s Day at Illinois. Maryland still carried a solid 17-2 record into a stretch of three consecutive ranked opponents, but the Terps promptly lost all three of those games (at No. 3 UCLA and then at home vs. No. 10 Iowa in overtime and No. 25 Washington in double overtime). Maryland then followed that up with a home loss to Oregon, and suddenly the Terrapins had dropped five of their last six games and sat below .500 in conference play. But they righted the ship in February, winning six games in a row before losing the season finale at No. 8 Michigan. As the No. 6 seed in the Big Ten Tournament, the Terrapins faced Oregon again in the tournament’s second round — and lost again, a result which may have denied them a host spot in the NCAA Tournament. The Terps’ win against Murray State in the NCAA Round of 64 snapped that two-game skid.
What are the odds? As of today, UNC is a 2.5-point favorite in the game.
Featured image via Associated Press/Chris Seward
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UNC Women’s Basketball NCAA Tournament Opponent Breakdown: Maryland Chapelboro.com.
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