Maryland men’s basketball out-shoots Rutgers, wins second straight Big Ten game, 68-60
(Photo Courtesy of Maryland Athletics.)
Imbued with confidence and energy leftover from its assertive win over a ranked Illinois team, Maryland men's basketball rushed to its best start since its final meeting with the Scarlet Knights. However, every bit they painfully learned in their initial meeting against Rutgers, it's the finish that matters.
Behind the combined play of Eric Ayala and Fatts Russell, Maryland (11-9, 3-6 B1G) averted another diddled atomic number 82 and finished its second meeting with Rutgers in disarming fashion. And with the duo's total 45 points and ten of Maryland's season-best 12 threes of the nighttime, the Terps throttled Rutgers in the closing half and consequently the game, 68-sixty.
"We talked about, going into the game, playing tip to horn," acting head double-decker Danny Manning said. "And I thought this was one of those games where we played tip the horn."
After Russell splashed back-to-back threes in transition but before the last media timeout of the opening half, Maryland held an imposing xx-bespeak pb.
Simply Geo Baker, in spite of minimal help from his running mate, Ron Harper Jr. worked to cut that lead to 12 merely before the half with a pair of run-starting triples of his own.
At halftime, Ayala and Russell combined for 20 points, Qudus Wahab finished all 4 of his touches in the pigment for 8 more than and the Terps were shooting well over 50% from the field as a unit, yet they were withal at chance of suffering a similar fate to their concluding Rutgers contest simply x days before Tuesday — with momentum in favor of the opponent and a ascendant atomic number 82 dwindling.
Their lead was a product of more than offense, just mixed defence force — 3-2 zone and man — that kept Harper with limited looks and an criminal offense that did more than score, but forced both Harper and Paul Mulcahy into foul trouble.
Harper'southward teammates struggled too, only Baker made sure to continue the Scarlet Knights comeback hopes going with xiv of Rutgers 26 commencement half points. Because of Baker and considering of the fourth dimension left in the contest, Maryland's commanding start was reduced to a, 38-26, lead and the Scarlet Knights were live.
"Nosotros were just talking dorsum-and-forth to each other like 'we been here earlier,'" Russell said of the locker room conversation at halftime. "We told each other that even if they make a shot, we tin can't let the crowd feel like it's an eight betoken shot instead of a two or 3 signal shot."
The Terps had designs to finish the game just every bit they started it; efficiently and forcefully. Or with their foot on the gas, every bit Russell said after the game. So Ayala and Russell continued to kindle the hot shooting start of the opening menses.
For the entire second one-half, except for two field goals, the 2 lead guards traded baskets. The threes came in bunches with the rare drive to the handbasket and midrange jumper littered in betwixt.
Ayala stretched his range and fired from every corner of the arc and even splashed a deep triple from the Rugters logo en route to 200 career threes. Ayala became the fifth Terp e'er to reach the mark. The Terps' near tenured athlete finished with five threes and hit four of them in the second half.
"It's just conviction, pretty much," Ayala said of his nearly recent success from deep. "Simply going with the game, going with the menses of the game equally information technology was coming — being aggressive."
Russell performed similarly, finishing with five of his own, picking his spots and dropping deep shoots off the dribble and off the catch.
Baker regressed, scoring merely two points in the concluding 20 minutes, Harper improved, scoring 12. With two meager efforts from its shot-creators, Rutgers struggled to lucifer the pb-stretching flurry of threes. Maryland maintained its double-digit lead until the waning seconds of the second half, making a statement on the road and finishing a job they didn't 10 days earlier.
"We've gotten meliorate since the last time nosotros played this talented Rutgers team," Manning said. "[I'thou just proud of the groups conventionalities and fight for each other."
Source: http://wmucsports.net/maryland-mens-basketball-out-shoots-rutgers-wins-second-straight-big-ten-game-68-60%ef%bf%bc/
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