Maryland women’s basketball capped an eventful week by securing commitments from a pair of seniors in point guard Sarah Te-Biasu of Virginia Commonwealth and power forward Mayé Touré of Rhode Island and a redshirt sophomore in shooting guard Saylor Poffenbarger of Arkansas.
On Friday evening, Te-Biasu created a post on X, formerly Twitter, announcing her decision.
On Sunday, Touré went public on Instagram and shared media posts on X announcing her path to the Terps. And on Monday, Poffenbarger shared media posts on X of her agreement to join the team.
Te-Biasu, Touré and Poffenbarger are the second, third and fourth transfers to join Maryland this offseason. Former Rutgers shooting guard Kaylene Smikle agreed to play for the program on Tuesday.
The 5-foot-5 Te-Biasu recently completed a senior year in which she started all 32 games and led VCU in scoring at 16.0 points per game, assists at 2.9 per game and steals at 2.0 per game. She also added 3.2 rebounds en route to being named the Atlantic 10 Player of the Year, becoming the first VCU player to receive that honor since Cyndy Wilks was named the Coastal Athletic Association Player of the Year in 2004.
Te-Biasu led the Rams to a single-season record for victories with 26 and the No. 2 seed in the Atlantic 10 Tournament. Despite an upset loss to No. 7 seed Saint Louis in the quarterfinal round, VCU received a bid to the Women’s Basketball Invitational Tournament — the school’s fifth postseason berth in the last six seasons of competition — before falling at Villanova in the first round.
Te-Biasu’s presence would allow junior and All-Big Ten first-team selection Shyanne Sellers to shift from point guard to more of a shooting guard role. Although Sellers paced the Terps (19-14, 9-9 Big Ten) in points (15.6 per game) and assists (5.5) in addition to compiling 5.8 rebounds and 1.3 steals, Te-Biasu could relieve some of the playmaking burden from Sellers.
Perhaps the only issue with Te-Biasu joining the Terps is her choice of jersey numbers. At VCU, she wore No. 0, which is the same number worn by Sellers.
The 6-2 Poffenbarger, a Middletown resident who played at Connecticut before transferring to the Razorbacks, finished her redshirt sophomore year starting all 30 games and leading them in rebounds per game at 11.2 and breaking the program’s single-season record for defensive rebounds with 283. She also averaged 10.2 points, 1.6 assists and 1.4 steals per game.
Poffenbarger compiled nine double-doubles and led the Southeastern Conference in defensive rebounds per game at 9.4 and ranked second in rebounds per game and eighth in 3-pointers per game at 1.8. She ranked second nationally in defensive rebounds per game and seventh in rebounds per game.
Te-Biasu and Poffenbarger are welcome additions to the backcourt following the departures of shooting guards Jakia Turner-Brown (13.5 points, 6.4 rebounds and 1.8 assists in 2023-24), Brinae Alexander (9.2 points and 2.8 rebounds) and Lavender Briggs (8.7 points and 5.0 rebounds), who exhausted their college eligibility. And freshmen Summer Bostock and Riley Nelson announced last month their decisions to enter the transfer portal.
The 6-foot-2 Touré wrapped up a senior campaign in which she started all 34 games and paced Rhode Island in scoring at 12.5 points per game and rebounds at 7.6 per game. She earned a spot on the All-Atlantic 10 second team a year after being named the conference’s Most Improved Player of the Year and drawing a berth on the first team.
Touré ignited a surprising march by Rhode Island (21-14, 10-8) through the Atlantic 10 Tournament. As the No. 6 seed, the team advanced to its first appearance in the title game since 2003 before losing to top-seeded Richmond.
Touré would add some much-needed size to a Maryland frontcourt that lost 6-1 graduate student forward Faith Masonius (6.6 points and 3.9 rebounds in 33 games, including 16 starts) and 6-7 freshman center and Mount Carmel graduate Hawa Doumbouya (2.1 points and 1.5 rebounds in 13 games) to the transfer portal. The Terps do return 6-2 redshirt junior power forward and Towson transfer Allie Kubek (9.0 points and 4.0 rebounds in 33 games, including 17 starts) and 6-2 sophomore small forward Emma Chardon (1.5 points and 0.5 rebounds in eight games), but Chardon is returning from a torn ACL in her left knee — her second season-ending injury in as many years.
The impending arrival of Te-Biasu, Touré and Poffenbarger came after Smikle announced her intention to leave the Scarlet Knights for Maryland. The 6-0 guard averaged 16.1 points, 5.1 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 1.7 steals in 15 games (including 14 starts) this past winter before an unspecified health issue sidelined for the remainder of the season.
Maryland has two remaining scholarship spots open.
