Story By: Sol Tucker
Photos By: Sol Tucker
Chicago, IL–
It has been a rough couple of weeks for the Terps, in fact it’s just flat out been a rough season that Head Coach Buzz Williams would like to forget… today his team didn’t let the Oregon Ducks forget that they are still here making noise in a dominating opening day of the Big Ten Tournament.
Just as the Terps have done in quite a few games this season, Oregon failed do anything offensively in the first half and scored just 12 points in the first half.
Oregon rebounded with the same number of points they scored in the first half in just 3:41 of the second half which was part of the 11-2 run to kick off the second half.
An 11-2 run helped the Ducks cut their deficit, Maryland allowed only ten points over the next 5:30 and the lead was 58-34 with just over 8:00 remaining in the game.
One thing that Buzz Williams has missed consistently is the scoring from Diggy Coit. His two stellar 40-point games have seemed so far away over the past few weeks and Williams has used quite a few different combinations that has seen Coit on the bench for quite a bit of the game. Today it was his 12 points in the first half and the 17 in the game that made the difference.
The Terps got a strong day from Elijah Saunders, who hit a career-high five triples in his 15-point day. He recorded his fifth game in double figures in Maryland’s past six contests. Andre Mills pitched in 12 points, six rebounds, and five assists to record his 12 performances with 10+ points in his last 14 games.
For the first time in the two games this season against the Ducks, the Terps were finally able to click as a team and the 10-point loss to the Ducks back in January looked like a different team than what was on the court today.
Maryland plays ninth-seeded Iowa in the second round on Wednesday
