While Michigan wanted to close the door on Maryland halfway through the second half, freshman Hunter Dickinson grabbed the rebound from his teammate’s missed shot with Jairus Hamilton on his back and Eric Ayala threw him off the baseline.
Dickinson went straight up again, made a foul on Ayala and laid the ball down. The native Alexandria, Virginia, shouted and went outside the booths to the stands, while the DeMatha product wanted to play the hometown of Terps, which he said did not recruit.
Dickinson scored 26 points and grabbed 11 plates when Michigan exploded in the second half to defeat Maryland 84-73. The rookie simply could not miss, shooting 10-for-11 from the field and 6-for-7 from the free-throw line.
‘[Dickinson] was big, physical and just his impact on the game, ”said Ayala. “I thought we were playing according to the reconnaissance report the coaches gave us. Hunter beat us as a team. We need to help each other better inside and the big guys. ”
Michigan shot more than 50% off the floor in the game and started nothing else in College Park.
In the first seven minutes of action, the Wolverines climbed to a 16-7 lead, with Eric Ayala as the only Terrapin to reach the leaderboard. Altogether, Michigan made six of its first ten shots that night, while Ayala was responsible for the first three Maryland buckets.
Donta Scott sank a wide open try from the right wing from the first media timeout to become the first teammate of Ayala to pick up a bucket. The Wolverines responded with a field goal on the other side, but Scott returned with a false pass and three from the left wing, making it a 19-13 ball game.
Maryland went deep from there deep down as it expanded its long-term success, scoring four of five consecutive three-point tries.
Things got tense in the second half of the first half, when Dickinson backed Aaron Wiggins under the basket and laid down. Head coach Juwan Howard was near the halfway line at the Maryland bench and the jaw back and forth led to technical techniques. for both banks.
Since the game was a close affair, the tension continued to increase. Mark Turgeon was asked for a technical foul after a loose ball foul on Hakim Hart was called after a missed layup. Dickinson will also face a technical offense after repeatedly looking at the Maryland bench and chatting after passing.
“It was just one of those nights where it got emotional,” Turgeon said. ‘If there are no fans, everything is heard. If there were fans in the building, it might have passed, but it was an emotional game. ‘
Michigan led 46-44 at halftime in the locker room when the Wolverines and Terrapins shot 58.3% and 51.6%, respectively. Maryland had the lead with seven more shot attempts, including a light-out 9-of-11 showing off three-point range.
Out of the halftime, a blocked shot against Dickinson and another Wolverine turnover gave Maryand a chance to hit coin. Aaron Wiggins got the ball offensively after a few links and realized he had a mismatch with Dickinson. He snapped a row and walked calmly back as Dickinson watched the edge and dropped a three-man kick away to give the Terps their first lead of the game at 47-46.
The Wolverines worked a 10-0 run to defeat Maryland, leading 54-50 which ended with a back-door cut and shot by Eli Brooks. While the bench jumped in celebration and ran, Jairus Hamilton was calm and collected as he sank a fast middle-distance jumper to put the Terps back on the board and get the deficit back to four points.
Michigan responded with Terps’ answer with a 13-0 run in which Dickinson scored six points, including the emphatic and one chance and one stroke.
‘We have doubled [Dickinson] a little, but he’s a great passer, ‘said Turgeon. ‘Several times he passed against the double team with two guys guarding him. We switched in the small group of ball screens and he got an offensive setback over a guard. He was great. ”
Dickinson hit two free throws outside of the under-eight timeout and a layout as part of a short 6-0 Michigan run that combined for a 19-2 stretch, reaching the game outside , 79-61, with 5:20 left.
Three things to know
1. Maryland could not sustain its success from depth. After a slow start in the opening minutes in Thursday’s game, the Terps finally started to warm up from the first half from outside the arc. Maryland converted three-point attempts on nine of its first eleven, with Scott being a perfect 4-of-4 point in the first 20 minutes of action. However, as Michigan’s defense improved, the shooting disappeared as the Terps shot 4-of-11 from three in the second half and 13-22 in the game.
2. The Terps struggled to defend the interior. After an inspired defensive display against an offensive Wisconsin group three days ago, the Terps were repeatedly beaten from the dribble against the Wolverines and allowed easy buckets to the edge. Michigan sometimes managed to get into the paint seemingly comfortably so that Dickinson could achieve a career achievement and the team could score 42 points in the paint.
“It was not as challenging as we found out, but we were missing in some parts where we had to pick up,” Scott said. ‘[Dickinson] made some difficult points and got some rebounds we needed to get, but we just have to go to the next one. ”
3. Free throws remain a problem. Maryland fell short at the charity line throughout the season and was eventually utilized by a good free throw team. When he shot 69.6 percent off the line this season, Maryland finished about his average on Thursday night, making only four of his six attempts. Conversely, Michigan was releasing the entire game and became an almost perfect 18-of-20.
“We caught up with them at a difficult time against Wisconsin,” Turgeon said. “Tonight we only shot six. It’s hard when you only shoot six and they shoot 16 and a half. We need to figure out how we can get there more. ”