Story By: Sol Tucker
Photos By: Sol Tucker
College Park, MD–
After a disappointing loss to Nebraska, the Terps returned home to the same court they knocked off Purdue a week earlier and were able to find that scoring magic again in a 88-70 victory over Minnesota.
The Terps were led by Julian Reese made 8 of 10 shots from the field and finished with 16 points, Jahmir Young added 14 points on 6-of-9 shooting.
Maryland shot 52% (33 of 63) from the field and tied its season low with five turnovers.
” We didn’t make the same mistakes we made against Nebraska tonight and you can see the difference in the score. We had this team by double digits to start the second half and we able to keep it that way will a well-rounded team effort,” said Terps Head Coach Kevin Willard.
“We really were rolling there for a while – I think at one point we were 30-for-40 – so it was definitely good to be back at home. I think Donta making a couple of shots early really helped relax everybody. We struggled to score against Nebraska’s defense; I thought we started a little bit slow tonight. It was our third game in seven days – these ends of the year stretches can be tough. I thought Ian gave us a really good boost defensively; once we got going defensively that really allowed us to open up offensively,” said Willard.
Minnesota (7-14, 1-10) has lost nine of its last 10 games and has been outscored 252-162 in its last three combined. Dawson Garcia, the team’s leading scorer (14.9 per game) and rebounds (6.3), missed his fourth consecutive game (foot).
The Terps knew they had control of his game after Donald Carey hit a 3-pointer to spark a 10-2 spurt that made it 19-8 and Martinez hit 3-pointers 16 seconds apart in a 16-2 run that culminated when Scott made a 3-pointer to stretch the lead to 22 with 5:46 left before halftime. Minnesota was never a factor in the second half.
Maryland has one final game at home against 21st ranked Northwestern and then two on the road against Ohio State and Penn State to round out the regular season before the Big Ten tournament.