No. 19 Spartans' Second-Half Comeback Falls Short Against No. 8 Maryland

COLLEGE PARK, Md. - Trailing by as many as 17 points in the first half, the No. 19/19 Michigan State women's basketball team couldn't complete the comeback, falling to No.8/8 Maryland, 72-66, Sunday at the XFINITY Center.

The Spartans have lost two-straight games to ranked teams and currently stand 11-2 overall and 1-1 in Big Ten action. Maryland improves to 12-0 overall and 2-0 in league play.

Michigan State had two players in double figures led by a season-high 20 points from junior guard Theryn Hallock, who returned to the starting lineup after coming off the bench the previous four games. Graduate guard/forward Julia Ayrault posted her fourth double-double of the season with 17 points and a season-high tying 12 rebounds. Senior forward Jocelyn Tate was huge on the boards with 10 rebounds, which is a MSU career-high. Tate also added a team-high four assists and three steals.

The Spartans have now had eight-straight games forcing at least 20 turnovers, as MSU defense forced the Terrapins into 25 turnovers.

Maryland was led by 19 points from Kaylene Smikle.

The Spartans scored the first five points of the game before Smikle hit a pair of free throws. The Terps missed their first seven baskets before an Allie Kubek trey made it a 7-5 Maryland lead. A 7-0 Terp run opened a 13-9 deficit with under two minutes remaining in the quarter. MSU went the final 5:08 without a field goal to trail at the end of the first quarter, 20-11.

In the second stanza, the Terps continued their strong play, taking a 31-18 lead after Bri McDaniel basket. In a physical game, Maryland wracked up the points at the free throw line, going 14-for-17 from the free throw line in the first half. A turnover and a trey by Ayrault cut it to a 37-25 Maryland lead with 3:08 left in the half. The Spartans battled until the halftime buzzer, holding Maryland to no field goals in the final 2:46.

Once again, Michigan State scored the first five points of the half, trimming the deficit to 41-35, leading to a Maryland timeout at the 8:08 mark in the third quarter. A pair of Hallock free throws made it a 50-46 game as the MSU defense continued apply pressure. From that point, Maryland went on a 7-0 run to make it a 57-46 game with 1:23 left in the third quarter.

The Spartans continued to battle, heading into the fourth period. A Hallock trey made it a tie game at 57-57 with 6:06 remaining. The Terps responded with a pair of 3-pointers to re-take the lead. Despite out-scoring the Terps 18-15 in the fourth period, MSU could not re-take the lead. Hallock led the charge for the Spartans in the fourth period with seven points.

Michigan State returns home to the Breslin Center for the first time since Dec. 15 to take on Purdue on Wednesday, Jan. 1 at 2 p.m.

Michigan State Women's Basketball Post-Game Notes
• Michigan State suffered its second loss of the season and have lost back-to-back regular-season games for the first time since Feb. 8 and 11 last season, losing at No. 14/13 Indiana, 94-91, and No. 5/5 Ohio State, 86-71, which was also the last time the Spartans played ranked teams in back-to-back games, after losing to No. RV/24 Alabama, 82-67, last time out (12/20/24) and to No. 8/8 Maryland on Sunday.

• With the No. 19/19 Spartans facing the No. 8/8 Terrapins, Sunday was the second time in as many games and the third time in two weeks that a ranked MSU squad faced a ranked opponent in playing No. RV/24 Alabama (12/20/24) in its last game . . . Sunday was also the second-straight Big Ten game against a ranked foe after the 68-66 win over No. 21/25 Iowa on Dec. 15 . . . prior to that game vs. Iowa, the last time a ranked Michigan State team faced a ranked opponent was Jan. 7, 2021, when No. 23/24 MSU lost to No. 12/12 Maryland.

• With the Spartan women ranked No. 19 in the AP Top 25 poll and the MSU men ranked No. 18, Michigan State is one of two Big Ten teams to have both its women's and men's programs in the AP Top 25, joined by UCLA, and one of eight in the NCAA, along with UConn, Duke, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Ole Miss and Kentucky.

• MSU's defense forced 25 Maryland turnovers, registering 25+ turnovers by the opposition for the third game in a row after 29 vs. Alabama (12/20/24) and 30 vs. Montana (12/19/24) in back-to-back days . . . overall, it was the Spartans' eighth game this season in forcing 25+ turnovers.

• The Spartan bench was out-scored by the Terps' reserves, 22-10, marking the first time this season that MSU's bench was out-scored by its counterparts.

• Sunday's Spartan starting five of graduate guard/forward Julia Ayrault, graduate guard Jaddan Simmons, junior forward Grace VanSlooten, senior guard/forward Jocelyn Tate and junior guard Theryn Hallock was the second game with that starting line-up . . . it is one of five different line-ups for Michigan State.

• After coming off the bench in the previous four games, junior guard Theryn Hallock, last season's Big Ten Sixth Player of the Year, returned to the starting line-up since Nov. 27 vs. Vanderbilt and netted a season-high 20 points . . . Hallock had started the first eight games of the season before coming off the bench in the last four contests.

• Hallock's team-high 20 points was her first 20-point outing since her career-high 24 points last season vs. Purdue (1/4/24) . . . it was her third 20-point outing of her career, along with 21 points, also last season, at Penn State (12/30/23) . . . MSU is now 2-1 when Hallock nets 20+ points.

• Sunday's 20 points was Hallock's third-straight outing in double-figures . . . it was her ninth game this season and 26th of her career with 10+ points.

• Hallock netted a team-best two 3-pointers as the only Spartan with more than one trey, to post her fifth game this season with multiple triples, including second in a row and third in the last four games.

• With 17 points Sunday, graduate guard/forward Julia Ayrault has recorded double-figures in the scoring column in all 12 games played this season, as she missed the Detroit Mercy game (12/20/24) with an injury . . . she has posted double-figures in her last 25 games in a row, as part of in 36 of her last 41 games played since the start of the 2023-24 season . . . Ayrault posted 10+ points in her 52nd career game and the Spartans enter today 39-12 when Ayrault scores in double-figures.

• Ayrault had 17 points and 12 rebounds for her fourth double-double of the season, all coming in the last eight games played, and her 10th career double-double.

• The 17 points and 12 rebounds continues Ayrault's scorching hot spurt, as she is averaging 18.4 points and 8.2 rebounds per game over her last nine games played, with 166 points and 74 rebounds over that span.

• With her 14th and 15th points of the game coming at 9:19 of the fourth quarter with a pair of free throws, Ayrault cracked the Top 25 of MSU's career scoring list, passing Jenna Allen (2015-19) at No. 26 with 1,098 points and passing Becky Cummings (1997-2001) at No. 25 with 1,108 points . . . Ayrault now has 1,111 points, becoming the 26th player in Spartan women's basketball history with 1,100 career points . . . she needs 22 points to catch Julie Polakowski (1982-86) at No. 24 with 1,143 points.

• The 12 rebounds tied Ayrault's season-high for the third time this season, matching the 12 boards from her last two double-doubles with a dozen boards both vs. Vanderbilt (11/27/24) and vs. DePaul (12/8/24) . . . Ayrault now has four double-figure rebounding outings this season, all coinciding with her four double-doubles, with three of the four coming away from home, including the two aforementioned contests, along with 10 rebounds in double-double at Western Michigan (11/27/24).

• The 12 rebounds was Ayrault's eighth game this season with five or more boards, including the second in a row.

• Senior guard/forward Jocelyn Tate pulled down 10 rebounds for not just her MSU season-high but her Spartan career-high and just two boards shy of her career-best 12 rebounds, which came during her time at Bowling Green, coming on March 27, 2023 vs. Florida.

• Tate netted a 3-pointer for MSU's first points of the ballgame and it was only Tate's fifth made trey of the season, and first since vs. Cal (11/26/24), finishing the game 1-of-2 from distance and she is now 5-of-15 behind the arc this season.

• By finishing with seven points, Tate tallied her third-consecutive game with 5+ points and 12th in the 13 games this season.

• Tate swiped a game-high three steals Sunday, registering three swipes for the second-straight game as part of her eighth game this season with multiple steals, including the sixth with three or more swipes.

• Graduate guard Nyla Hampton registered a career-high four blocks, posting all four of MSU's blocks . . . Sunday was Hampton's first game this season with multiple blocks after having one block in four different games this season . . . the four rejections topped her collegiate career-best of three blocks done twice during her Bowling Green career, last doing so on March 16, 2022 vs. Western Michigan.

• After never leading MSU in assists in her Spartan career for her previous 42 games in the Green & White, Tate has led the Spartans for the second-straight game after four assists on Sunday and leading MSU with three helpers last time out vs. Alabama (12/20/24)

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Team Stats

Theryn Hallock

Julia Ayrault

Jaddan Simmons

Jocelyn Tate

Players Mentioned

Julia Ayrault

Theryn Hallock

Nyla Hampton

Jaddan Simmons

Jocelyn Tate

Grace VanSlooten