Gophers women lose sixth consecutive game with 55-point rout by No. 7 Maryland

It was a sweet end to a difficult day on the Williams Arena court.

The Gophers women's basketball team had just absorbed a 99-44 loss to seventh-ranked Maryland in Sunday's regular-season finale, tied for the third-biggest loss in program history. It hadn't lost that badly since 1986.

The four seniors were being honored one by one. Masha Adashchyk, Taiye and Kehinde Bello. And Jasmine Brunson.

With a twist. When it was Brunson's turn she got both a thank you and a ring. With her teammates cheering, Brunson's boyfriend, Elijah Wright, got on one knee and proposed. Stunned, Brunson said yes.

"It was a huge surprise to me,'' said Brunson, wearing the ring in the postgame presser. "I wasn't expecting it. My mind was still — and is still — wrapped around basketball.''

Oh yeah, that.

Everyone knew it was going to be tough. Maryland entered the game on a 13-game winning streak — one in which its average margin of victory was north of 25 points. The Terrapins needed a win to tie Northwestern for first place and secure their fifth Big Ten championship in the six years since they joined the conference. They start a lineup that's athletic and big. Coach Brenda Frese's bench is deep. The Gophers, meanwhile, had lost five straight going into the game, with a match with Penn State in the Big Ten tournament's first round already set before tipoff.

But this bad?

The Gophers hit their first three shots and led 6-1 in the first two minutes. They went 12-for-51 the rest of the way. And once Maryland started rolling, things kind of snowballed. Maryland shot 59%, turned 35 Gophers turnovers into 37 points, had 24 steals with defensive pressure so tough it was difficult at times for the Gophers to even inbound the ball.

"Obviously not what we expected,'' Gophers coach Lindsay Whalen said. "At all. Give them credit. They're a great team. That's a one seed, I would say, probably in the NCAA [tournament]. They're playing at a very elite level. But I told our team we have a chance Wednesday to redeem ourselves.''

Maryland got 22 points from Taylor Mikesell; the conference's top three-point shooter went 6-for-8 from behind the arc.

The Gophers got 10 points from Sara Scalia, eight from Gadiva Hubbard, seven points and 10 rebounds from Taiye Bello and seven points from Adashchyk.

Starting five players who are 6 feet or taller, the Terrapins (25-4, 16-2) switch on every pick-and-roll and throw a variety of full-court presses on their foes, one reason why just one opponent has been able to stay within nine points of them during their winning streak. The Gophers (15-14, 5-13) struggled to get good shots all day.

After the game had ended, the Gophers seniors had been honored and Brunson had been betrothed, Maryland took the court to take pictures with the conference regular-season championship trophy.

"You want to just throw this away, as bad as it might sound,'' Brunson said. "It wasn't us today. We have a great opportunity in practice on Tuesday, and an even greater opportunity on Wednesday to go out against Penn State and bounce back. I think we'll be able to do that. We definitely have to move on from this one.''