Two star players on the Maryland women's basketball team and two reserves have entered the transfer portal.
Sophomore forward/guard Angel Reese, an All-Big Ten first-team selection who led the Terrapins in scoring (17.8 points per game) and rebounding (10.6) this season, is moving on from Maryland. So is junior guard Ashley Owusu, an All-Big Ten second-team honoree and the 2021 Ann Meyers Drysdale Award winner as Division I's top shooting guard.
Owusu led the team in scoring during her sophomore year (17.9) and was second in scoring (14.3) this past season.
"I have never started anything that I haven't finished, and finishing was the plan when I decided to come to College Park. My goal was to have a great career here and to win a national championship alongside an amazing team," Owusu wrote in a social media post. "Unfortunately, events that have transpired on and off the court this year have led me to make the very difficult but necessary decision to continue my education and basketball career elsewhere."
Both Reese and Owusu are local products. Reese is from Baltimore, and her younger brother, Julian Reese, just finished his freshman season for the Maryland men's basketball team. Owusu is from Woodbridge, Virginia, outside Washington, D.C.
Also entering the portal are sophomore guard Taisiya Kozlova, of Russia, and senior guard Channise Lewis, who has battled knee injuries while at Maryland and did not play this season for the 23-9 Terrapins.
"Every team has been impacted by the transfer portal on both ends of it," Terrapins coach Brenda Frese said in a statement. "Maryland basketball is bigger than any one lineup or person. Our staff is committed to bringing the best student-athletes to Maryland.''
Reese had three seasons of eligibility left, and Owusu had two -- including the extra season the NCAA granted to athletes before the 2020-21 school year because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The 6-foot-3 Reese was limited to 15 games her freshman season due to a foot injury, but this past season, she became the first Maryland women's player since 1975 to average a double-double as a sophomore. She was named an AP third-team All-American.
The 6-foot Owusu was tabbed Big Ten freshman of the year in 2020 and was named Big Ten tournament MVP in 2020 and 2021. She has been named to an All-Big Ten team in each of her three years at Maryland, including the first team in 2021. Owusu missed time this past season because of an ankle injury and illness but was second on the team with 3.7 assists per game.
The Terps lost in their Big Ten tournament opener for the first time since joining the conference in 2014-15 and then fell in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament for the second straight year, this time to Stanford.
After that loss, Reese tweeted, "We'll be back, I'll be back. TRUST ME."
The Terps also are losing graduate students Katie Benzan, the team's assists leader, and Chloe Bibby, its second-leading rebounder. Both have declared for the upcoming WNBA draft.
ESPN's Mechelle Voepel contributed to this report.