Story By: Andrew Lang
Photos By: Sol Tucker
College Park, MD–
For most of the first half of tonight’s marquee match-up against 15th ranked Marquette, it looked as if the Terps could face any ranked opponent and go the distance. However, that distance ran out in the final seconds as the Golden Eagles escaped College Park with a 78-74 victory.
The difference in this game for Marquette was Cam Jones. He scored 18 of his 28 points in the second half and became the X factor they needed down the stretch to hold off a Terps run.
Marquette led 74-66 with 1:07 left before the Terrapins charged back. It was 76-74 when Maryland’s DeShawn Harris-Smith stepped to the foul line for two shots with 14.7 seconds remaining.
Harris-Smith who played extremely well the entire game, went cold at the wrong time and missed both shots.
Derik Queen and Ja’Kobi Gillespie paced all Maryland scorers with 24 points each for a combined 48 points.
“That’s a good basketball team, extremely well coached,” head coach Kevin Willard said. “That’s why I wanted to test these guys early with this Villanova game [and] going into Big Ten play with Ohio State and Purdue. I was really proud of these guys’ effort. Really loved the way they kept battling, just getting a new team to understand the value of every possession.”
