Maryland women’s basketball junior guard Ashley Owusu is entering the transfer portal.
The 2020 Big Ten Freshman of the Year and two-time Big Ten Tournament Most Valuable Player announced her departure on Instagram and Twitter on Tuesday morning, citing “events that have transpired on and off the court this year.”
Owusu thanked her teammates, the University of Maryland and fans in her post.
“I have never started anything that I haven’t finished, and finishing was the plan when I decided to come to College Park,” she wrote. “My goal was to have a great career here and win a national championship alongside my amazing team. I could picture my jersey hanging in the rafters at Xfinity Center.”
Owusu’s list of accolades in her three seasons at Maryland is long. In 2021, the 6-foot guard earned the Ann Meyers Drysdale Award, given to the best shooting guard in the nation, as well as honors from the Associated Press, U.S. Basketball Writers Association and Women’s Basketball Coaches Association.
This past season, Owusu scored in double figures in 20 of 27 games and became the 35th Terp to eclipse 1,000 career points, finishing with 1,286. Included was a 3-pointer she hit in the fourth quarter to defeat then-No. 6 Baylor. However, she missed stretches of the season with an ankle injury as the Terps suffered their earliest Big Ten Tournament exit in program history and lost to No. 1 seed Stanford in the Sweet 16.
Owusu, who averaged 14.6 points, 4.2 rebounds and 5.0 assists per game in three seasons while shooting 45.7% from the field, was held to just four points on 2-for-9 shooting in her final game. She becomes the third key player to leave the Terps this offseason, along with graduate students Katie Benzan and Chloe Bibby.
The Woodbridge, Virginia, native was the No. 10 recruit in espnW’s “HoopGurlz Terrific 25? for the Class of 2019 when she committed to Maryland. At the time, she’d considered Penn State, UConn, West Virginia and South Carolina, which won its second national championship on Sunday.
Owusu isn’t the only high-profile Terp to leave Maryland in recent years. Guard Taylor Mikesell, one of the best 3-point specialists in the Big Ten and the 2019 Big Ten Freshman of the Year, transferred to Oregon in 2020 and later Ohio State. In the same year, 6-5 center Shakira Austin left College Park and headed to Ole Miss.
In 2017, Destiny Slocum — also the Big Ten Freshman of the Year in 2017 and the No. 3 point guard in her high school class — departed Maryland, as did forward Kiah Gillespie and center Jenna Staiti. Slocum now plays in the WNBA for the Las Vegas Aces.
In 2015, guard Lexie Brown left Maryland for Duke. She now plays professionally for the Los Angeles Sparks.
Sophomore guard Taisiya Kozlova, who came off the bench in 21 games this season, also announced her transfer via Instagram on Tuesday.
