Story By: Andrew Lang
Photos By: Sol Tucker
College Park, MD–
When the #2 ranked Michigan Wolverines made their way to College Park, many predicted that the Terps would even be able to stay close in this game, well Buzz Williams had his team on full tilt tonight behind the hot shooting Diggy Coit.
Coit let the Terps with 31 points, which included 8 three pointers, but his ability to get the clean looks in the second half.
The game changed for the Terps with 4:36 left in the half and Maryland leading, 37-36, when Pharrel Payne was helped off the court with a lower-leg injury after he was landed on by Yaxel Lendeborg on a contested rebound. Payne, averaging 18.7 points per game, had seven points, four rebounds, two assists and three blocks at the time. He returned to the bench but was ruled out and was seen rubbing the knee as well as using crutches to join the team huddle during the time-outs.
Things didn’t get much easier for the Terps when, 75 seconds into the second half, Terrapins senior forward Solomon Washington earned his second technical foul of the game and was ejected. Michigan was down 56-47 at the time, then immediately went on an 8-0 run, all from Lendeborg.
Late in the second half the lack of bench scoring was felt by the Terps and it was mostly Myles Rice that gave any meaningful offensive off the bench besides Elijah Saunders. The heavy minutes by the bench players could also be felt late in game with the amount of turnovers and mistakes that turned into easy buckets for the Wolverines.
Maryland really struggled late in this game and went over 3:30 minutes without scoring which allowed for the Wolverines to open a 20-point lead with 19 seconds remaining.
The Terps will have a few days to regroup before they head on the road to face Virginia December 20th and very well could be without Payne for an extended time.
