Story By: Sol Tucker
Photos By: Sol Tucker
College Park, MD–
If you were looking for a game that might have people forgetting that the Terps were on the zero train in Big Ten play coming into today, this match-up against Penn State and the dominance through most of the game by Diggy Coit could have been just that.
Coit, who set a new Xfinity Center record in scoring with 43 points on 14-for-23 from the field, 9-for-15 from behind the arc and 6-for-8 from the free throw line. This was his second 40-point game and his third game making at least eight three pointers this season.
The Terps played possibly their best game of the entire season and it wasn’t against one of those non-conference opponents. Penn State has has had its share of troubles this season and becomes the second team in the conference to remain without a single win this season joining Northwestern 0-7 after today.
Coit scored 11 points in the game’s first five minutes and 30 in the first half, marking the most in a first half by any Big Ten player in over five years and the most by any D1 player this season. The Terps tallied 56 points in the first half, marking their highest first-half total in a Big Ten regular season game in program history.
Penn State would actually make a game of this midway through the second half when Josh Reed makes layup off a Dominick Stewart assist to cut the lead to 66-55 with a 10:06 remaining. This was as close as the Nittany Lions would get after the Terps scored just 10 points in ten minutes to start the second half.
Coit continued with his amazing afternoon, and it was the energy behind another three pointer with 4:39 remaining that basically ended the afternoon of the Nittany Lions as the Terps pulled ahead 87-63.
Once the Terps opened the lead to 20+ again with 2:43 remaining, the Nittany Lions scored just 6 points out of the TV timeout, which effectively ended their day and gave the Terps a much-needed win after coming off a rough road trip to the West Coast.
Hopefully the Terps can keep this energy going when they head on the road to face Illinois this week.
