Story By: Andrew Lang
Photos By: Sol Tucker
College Park, MD–
It was Gold Rush night in College Park as the Georgetown Hoyas came to Xfinity Center for the first of an annual non-conference match-up over the next four years… the results were more like a bronze competition medal for the Terps in a 70-60 loss.
The Hoyas were led by Malik Mack’s 19 points which led the Hoyas to their first win against Maryland in College Park since 1964.
Georgetown set the tone in this game early jumping out to an early 13-2 lead with 16:22 remaining the first half.
Maryland had struggles early on trying to even find someone to score except Pharell Payne, who finished with 17 points and 11 rebounds in 38 minutes.
Payne, in his first season at Maryland after transferring from Texas A&M, is expected to fill the shoes of Julian Reese who was one of the most consistent players in his time at Maryland. He showed some of the same style of play and without him the game the Terps could have been down by more than 25 points.
The deficit reached as much as 50-30 after Lewis made a pair of free throws with 12:08 to play in the second half. Maryland managed to pull to 61-54 with 4:05 to go, but Williams (14 points, 10 rebounds) gathered a lob pass from Lewis for a dunk that allowed the Hoyas to steady themselves.
After the game the Hoyas energy on the bench was different than we have seen over the past two seasons under Cooley and in his post-game press conference even his tone was different about the results.
“I’m just excited we made a big step today,” said Cooley, entering his third season with the Hoyas. “I thought our defense was elite. I thought we were very, very disruptive. I’m just proud of our men. The ball’s not always going to go in, but if you defend and have a will and a want, eventually you’ll find yourself on the winning side.”
“I will always give credit to the opponent in every possible way,” first-year Terps Coach Buzz Williams said. “I thought they were physical from start to finish. We didn’t handle their physicality very well”
The takeaway for both teams here is that the Terps need to find themselves after this game and the Hoyas seem to finally be going in the correct direction to win games in the Big East this season.
Maryland’s next game is coming up this Tuesday against Alcorn State. The Hoyas return home to face Binghamton on Wednesday night.
