COLLEGE PARK — Despite Maryland men’s basketball’s turgid first season under coach Buzz Williams, the Terps’ performance throughout February showed signs of life and optimism for the future.
Those came few and far between in the first half of Maryland’s penultimate home game of the season against Rutgers as the Terps entered halftime down by 19, but a second-half rally saw the Terps take the lead with 11 minutes to go and fall just short of a dramatic comeback in a 69-65 loss Sunday afternoon at Xfinity Center.
“We’ve kind of gotten in a groove with our rotation, our synergy, our ability to play to the scouting report, understanding our margins, not being resistant to what we’re deficient in,” Williams said. “You have to play really hard, you have to prepare the right way and then you have to execute, and we didn’t do all three of those things, particularly in the first half. I thought the second half group was much more like what we had seen the last couple of weeks.”
Maryland fell to 11-18 on the year and 4-14 in Big Ten play with the loss, dropping the Terps to 17th in the conference standings, while Rutgers moved to 12-17 and 5-13 in Big Ten play. Maryland will almost certainly play in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament in Chicago on March 10, which features the league’s four worst teams.
The Terps would need to win their last two games of the regular season — at Wisconsin, which is receiving votes in the most recent Associated Press Top 25 poll, on Wednesday and a home game against No. 10 Illinois on Sunday — to have a chance at securing a bye through the first round. In that scenario, they would also need Northwestern and Rutgers to lose out and Oregon to win at least one of its last two regular-season games.
The odds aren’t in the Terps’ favor.
Maryland fell behind early on Sunday after starting 0-for-5 from the field and shooting 31.3% through the first 10 minutes of the game. Despite outrebounding the Scarlet Knights 15-5 in that time, including five offensive rebounds, the Terps’ continued shooting struggles contributed to a double-digit deficit about halfway through the first half. The Terps only had three second-chance points on 10 offensive rebounds in the first half.
An even colder shooting stretch saw Maryland’s deficit grow to 20 with two minutes to go in the first half, and a buzzer-beating 3-pointer from Rutgers guard Tariq Francis, who finished with a game-high 19 points, gave the Scarlet Knights a 39-20 lead at the break.
The Terps shot 32.1% from the field and 1-for-13 from beyond the arc while turning the ball over 14 times in the first 20 minutes, which contributed to their second-lowest scoring output in a first half this season, behind 19 in their loss to Virginia on Dec. 20.
“In the first half, we gave them the ball a lot, so not giving them the ball and easy opportunities to push and score and play good defense [was key in the second half],” senior Elijah Saunders said.
Maryland matched that first-half output in the first 6:12 of the second half. Andre Mills and Saunders each sank a pair of early 3s as Maryland dominated on both sides of the floor, going on a 13-0 run to cut Rutgers’ lead to four.
“They knew as it was transpiring in the first half that we weren’t playing the way that we have to play,” Williams said. “They were already talking by the time I got in there [at halftime], and I thought their execution of two changes, one offensively, one defensively [in the second half] were both really good. I thought that was a spark.”
Show Caption1 of 12Rutgers Scarlet Knights forward Bryce Dortch, left blocks a layup by Maryland Terrapins guard Isaiah Watts with guard Tariq Francis defending during the second half of a Big Ten men’s college basketball matchup at College Park. Maryland came from behind but still lost, 69-65. (Karl Merton Ferron/Staff)Expand
Mills has recently emerged as a key piece of the Terps’ present and future, averaging 19.1 points per game on 43.8% shooting from deep in February, including a 39-point eruption in Maryland’s loss at Northwestern. His worst scoring output in that stretch was nine points on 3-for-14 shooting in Maryland’s loss at Rutgers on Feb. 15.
Mills seemed destined to repeat that after only two points on 1-for-8 shooting in the first half, but the redshirt freshman helped lead the Terps’ comeback attempt in the second. He finished with 15 points, three made 3s and 10 rebounds.
A Solomon Washington and-one gave Maryland its first lead of the game at 48-47 with about 11 minutes left, capping a 20-2 run. Washington joined Mills in leading Maryland in scoring on Sunday and finished with 15 points and four blocks.
Maryland and Rutgers battled for control in the final minutes of the game, but the Scarlet Knights went on a quick 6-0 run with three minutes remaining after Saunders, who finished with 11 points and 14 rebounds, knotted the game at 54.
A pair of Washington free throws and a Diggy Coit jumper brought Maryland within two points of Rutgers with a minute to go, but Coit missed a go-ahead 3-pointer with 32 seconds to go, and the Scarlet Knights avoided any costly turnovers or free-throw misses late to sweep the season series against the Terps.
Have a news tip? Contact Tim Schwartz at timschwartz@baltsun.com, 410-332-6200 and x.com/timschwartz13.
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