Story By: Andrew Lang
Photos By: Sol Tucker
College Park, MD–
After a few bumps in the road to start the season, the Terps and Kevin Willard have seemed to find a way to gel together and put together victories that show what this team is actually capable of this season.
Maryland led by as many as 29 points in the first half against Rider tonight and really showed their defensive pressure on through the second half leading them to their 15th-straight win in XFINITY Center, dating back to last season.
Julian Reese led the way for the Terps, recording his third consecutive double-double (22 points and 12 rebounds); it was also his first-ever first-half double-double. Jordan Geronimo continued his impressive play, finishing with 15 points on six-of-six shooting while Jahmir Young added 22 points and five assists.
The Terps’ 27-point halftime lead was the program’s largest since Nov. 17, 2016 against St. Mary’s College of Maryland.
“I liked our all-around effort tonight,” said Terps Head Coach Kevin Willard. “We have an understanding of what it’s going to take once the Big Ten season kicks off this weekend against Indiana.”
“In the first half our defense gave us a lot of opportunities for fast break points, said Willard. We turned them over 9 times, had 22 deflections. I thought our defense led to us getting easy buckets early. Again, being at home, we had two really good days of practice this week going into this game, I think everyone’s just starting to feel a little more comfortable with each other now. Especially that starting unit, they’re one of the most productive units in the country and I think they’re getting more and more used to what each other is doing.”