After the ball was passed for the 17th time with less than nine minutes left against Nebraska, Maryland’s men’s basketball had to start grooming the ball if it wanted a chance to get to the top.
About four minutes later, and still trying to find their offensive rhythm, the Terps tried to get the ball in the paint, but their pass was diverted out of bounds under the basket, avoiding only their 18th turnover of the night. .
But on the ensuing incoming game, senior guard Darryl Morsell lobbed a pass to Aaron Wiggins in the paint, where the junior guard caught the pace and managed in one move to represent Maryland by six.
Wiggins’ bucket sparked a 7-0 run for Maryland as the Terps dominated the Cornhuskers, with no turnover for the final 8:49 of the game to secure a 64-50 victory over Nebraska on Tuesday night. .
“I think we just started to be more patient,” said junior forward Jairus Hamilton. ‘We started to find our places where we really need to go and understand what they give us, and just start taking what they give us instead of trying to force things that are not there, and I think we did it. really a good job with just customizing. ‘
Turnover brought the Terps’ offensive rhythm to a halt early on after taking an 8-7 lead nearly five minutes into the game, with the team succeeding in tight windows where the Huskers waited to jump. Nebraska forced Maryland to six turnovers within the first ten minutes, after giving it just 11 away times against the Gophers.
With their turnover problems, the Terps were without points for more than three and a half minutes. On the other hand, Nebraska looked sharp from outside the arc.
The team’s leading scorer in Teddy Allen caught a Terp defender from the dribble, which forced the defense to collapse and left Dalano Banton wide open in the corner, where he sank the open triangle around the Cornhuskers with To draw 18-14 and give Nebraska the fifth. three-pointer of the first half. The Huskers shot 6-out-14 in the first twenty minutes from three points, despite finishing second to last in the Big Ten in three percent.
However, Maryland received a significant point boost from an unexpected source. Junior forward Jairus Hamilton shoots less than the three three-pointers per game this season, but shoots out in the first half.
He nailed three points from across the floor, including one from the top of the key to give up a 9-0 run to give Maryland a 25-21 lead again at 25-21 at halftime.
Hamilton finished with 11 points in the first half, tying his season high for triangular points in a game with three in the first frame, and scoring double figures for the first time in seven games.
Yet the Terps continued to make headaches throughout the year so that Nebraska could keep business.
With 4:03 left, Wiggins grabbed a defensive rebound and looked to push in the transition. When Wiggins sees Hamilton cutting to the edge, he tries a three-quarter street course that comes back from the edge and back into the hands of the Cornhuskers, ending a promising opportunity to build just on a two-point lead.
The Terps made a total turnover of ten in the first half, a serious regression after showing promise in this division in their last few games.
“They have a lot of length there,” Wiggins said of Nebraska’s defense. ‘But it’s just us who are indifferent to the ball. We need to be a little tougher mentally to make the right plays, to make a pass and a pass, and we definitely need to cut the turnover. ‘
Nebraska stole 13 on the night, the most any team has stolen the ball from the Terps this season. The previous highlight was nine.
But Maryland closed out the half with a bang, with senior guard Darryl Morsell attempting a similar performance to that of Wiggins by launching a halfway shot while tapping away the final seconds. When he saw the shot of the Maryland logo in the middle court, Morsell’s shot miraculously bubbled off the glass to give his team a boost and a 32-28 lead.
Despite Morsell’s heroism, the team came out on top in the second half by falling back into its old habits.
Wiggins tried to break down his defender from the dribble in the first half of the team, but was asked for a double dribble, and turned it around immediately within the first moment of the second time.
Neither team managed to score in the first three minutes of the period, a cold that was eventually broken with a three-pointer from Donta Scott to leave Maryland 35-28 at 16:44 lead.
But the turnover bug kept biting Maryland as the second half progressed, constantly killing any rhythm the team was desperately searching for. Galin Smith positioned himself to receive an pass in the paint, but just as Hakim Hart was feeding him the ball, Smith was swarmed and stripped by two different Husker defenders.
In the next possession, Smith went into the low position and made himself available again for a pass, but this time Wiggins telegraphed the pass and his defender stole the ball in the air, a turnover that immediately led to a teddie. Allen jumps to make the score 40-38 in favor of Maryland with 11:58 left.
The Terps converted it three times during the 3:30 period, breaking their single-game season high of 16, with just under nine minutes left in the game.
‘It’s frustrating, I do not know what role it played [the turnovers], to be really genuine with you, ”said head coach Mark Turgeon. “It’s too much. We just need to be better. We just need to be better with the ball than tonight, and hopefully we will be tomorrow. ‘
Maryland managed to maintain a slim lead over Nebraska as the game progressed, but eventually saw Cornhuskers, even with a three-pointer from Kobe Webster, with 8:12 left.
Both teams still exchanged buckets as Wiggins continued to chase his shot on offense, despite struggling to score after his impressive start to the game. With the count of Morsell’s lob, he extended Maryland’s advantage to six.
Wiggins sustained his attack at the edge when he started and drove to his left with Dalano Banton at his hip before lying in a sticky basket and the offense, extending the team’s lead to nine points as the Huskers steamed began to lose. .
Nebraska were unable to score a field goal over the final 3:32 of the game, which Maryland was able to outsmart the Cornhuskers 22-9 in the final eight minutes and ultimately a double-digit victory in College Park. The win was the first few consecutive wins in the Big Ten series and the second win in three days. They will face the Cornhuskers again on Wednesday night.
“We could not get anything offensive going, and suddenly we had it going,” Turgeon said. “We just kept talking defense, defense, defense. Let’s guard them, hold them three times in a row, and just keep defending and try not to put offensive pressure on our guys. ”
Three things to know
1. Jairus Hamilton had a career night. Maryland struggled to get contributions from their bench throughout the season, but got a lot from Jairus Hamilton in this one. Hamilton achieved perhaps his best performance as Terp on Tuesday night, burying his career high with 15 points and three of his four three-point attempts, as well as a career high in tries.
“I just felt very confident,” Hamilton said. “I know it was not the best year for me either, but I just want to stay confident and ready for when they need me.”
2. Terps again finds a way to win the rebound battle. It was no secret that this is one of Maryland’s smallest teams that was in recent memory. However, this did not prevent the Terps from being able to keep themselves on the glass. Maryland pulled off 43 total rebounds, the highest total this season since hitting 48 plates against Saint Peter.
3. Eric Ayala and Aaron Wiggins struggled outside the arc. The two leading scorers of the Terps had a quiet performance of deep in this one. Although they scored 14 points and 21 points respectively, the duo combined to shoot just three-for-16 on three-point attempts, with Wiggins making up two of the successful attempts.