Maryland women’s basketball guard Sarah Te-Biasu persevered to become a hero in College Park

Te-Biasu had to learn English in her journey to become a star.

The clock ticked as Sarah Te-Biasu’s college career inched closer to its potential finish. Maryland women’s basketball had one chance to stay alive.

Down three points with 12 seconds left, the ball found its way into the graduate guard’s hands above the 3-point line. Te-Biasu set her feet and released.

Swish. Tie game.

The climax of Te-Biasu’s journey sent College Park into a craze. And after she kept her team alive, a later steal helped send Maryland to the Sweet 16.

Suddenly, she was a hero. But her path to get there was far from linear.

Growing up in Montreal, basketball wasn’t at the top of Te-Biasu’s mind. The sport wasn’t popular there.

“I was a soccer player before, and I just ended up playing basketball with my friend at the park, and I just fell in love with the sport,” Te-Biasu said.

Ending up in the United States — whether at VCU, her first college, or Maryland — once seemed unfathomable to her. She faced a language barrier; Te-Biasu’s native language is French.

So toward the end of high school, Te-Biasu went to Niagara Prep in Ontario, partially to learn English.

“First, when I was at Niagara, it was a little bit tough,” Te-Biasu said. “I started to take an English class and watching TV or videos in English, just to help me.”

Te-Biasu became a high school standout and committed to VCU. Moving to the U.S. came with a fresh set of hurdles.

She now had to balance tougher competition on the court, while also dealing with the challenges of being in a new environment off it.

“The English in Canada and America is similar, but it’s different, just with the accent and all that,” Te-Biasu said. “So it was a little bit tough, but I was in an environment [where] all people were speaking English, so I had to – I forced myself to just speak English.”

Te-Biasu found her footing at VCU, standing out on the court and improving her confidence to communicate with her teammates, coaches and the media.

To her, the transition to VCU was easy because of the help she got.

“In VCU, they were helping me with everything, anything that I asked, they were like, helping me with my English. They were helping me in school and all that basketball, just to learn the terms,” Te-Biasu said. “Even on and off the court, they were helping me. So it was really easy. The transition was easy.”

The 5-foot-5 guard spent four seasons with the Rams, appearing in 107 games and starting in 103. As a freshman, Te-Biasu was selected to the All-Atlantic 10 Rookie Team and her 37.9% shooting from 3-point range led VCU. From there, she only continued to get better.

Te-Biasu followed that season up with back-to-back All-Atlantic 10 third team selections. She was named Atlantic 10 Player of the Year in her final year with the Rams.

“They really helped me with getting big, and lift … getting big with my physicality. The physicality was different, the people were big, and they helped me to just get stronger and all that,” Te-Biasu said. “Just with my basketball IQ too, they helped me to understand the game a little bit more.”

For Te-Biasu’s final year of eligibility, she opted to make the move to Maryland, a program with a rich history. Her transition wasn’t easy. The competition was harder and the expectations were higher.

“The [Atlantic 10] and Big Ten is different,” Te-Biasu said. “Guards are bigger, taller [in the Big Ten] and so I had to adjust with that.”

The Montreal native had a slow start to her only season at Maryland. She couldn’t manage to stand out among a highly talented roster.

Te-Biasu was a mainstay in the starting lineup, but took time to find her groove. Toward the end of January, she started to heat up, but things didn’t fully click until Feb. 6 in Oregon, where she scored 26 points.

“From that game, everything just clicked. I was really confident in that game. I was shooting with confidence and playing with confidence and really aggressive on defense too,” Te-Biasu said. “But that really helped me to just believe in myself and just say, like at the end of the day, it’s just basketball, and it just helped me to be confident for the rest of the season.”

That confidence made her an X-factor when others were plagued with injuries down the stretch.

“That’s who Sarah [Te-Biasu] is,” head coach Brenda Frese said. “She just has, throughout the course of the season, really taken over and commanded — just her presence. You saw the aggressive mentality … and the awareness and the time to be able to go score the basketball.”

The Terps faltered early in conference play, but finished the regular season on fire, in part due to Te-Biasu stepping up. It all came to fruition in the final game of the regular season, when she had her first signature moment.

In overtime against Ohio State, the game was tied with seven seconds remaining, seemingly destined for a second overtime.

Te-Biasu got the ball and charged up the court. As the clock ticked down to zero, she released a floater.

Swoosh. She had beat the buzzer.

Teammate Shyanne Sellers — who was selected No. 17 in the WNBA draft — counted that win as one of her favorite moments at Maryland.

“When Sarah [Te-Biasu] hit the game-winner against Ohio State this year, that was pretty nice too,” Sellers said.

Yet despite her role in such unforgettable moments, Te-Biasu’s future is unclear. While her collegiate career has ended, her basketball career has not.

“My goal is to play, it’s been a dream to just playing, in the WNBA and all that. If I have a chance, that’ll be really nice,” Te-Biasu. “But I want to play pro, like overseas too, so I’m just seeing my options.”