Maryland men’s basketball came up just short of completing a dramatic comeback and fell, 69-65, to Rutgers on March 1.
The Terrapins (11-17 overall, 4-13 Big Ten) erased a 19-point halftime deficit and briefly took the lead but could not deliver the final blow as Rutgers closed out the game at the free-throw line.
Maryland will look to snap its two-game losing streak when it travels to Madison to face Wisconsin at 8 p.m. on March 4.
Redshirt freshman guard Andre Mills and senior forward Solomon Washington led Maryland against Rutgers with 15 points apiece. Mills recorded his first double-double of the season, adding 10 rebounds.
“[The players] knew, as it was transpiring in the first half, that we weren’t playing the way that we have to play,” Terps head coach Buzz Williams said. “And that’s kind of why I let them say what they had to say at halftime. They were already talking by the time I got in there. And then I thought their execution of those things in the second half — two changes, one offensively, one defensively — were both really good. I thought that was a spark.”
Down 39-20 at halftime, Maryland came out of the locker room with renewed energy. The Terrapins opened the second half on a 24-8 run, grabbing their first lead of the game at 48-47 following an and-one by Washington with 11 minutes remaining.
Maryland shot 56 percent (9 of 16) from the floor during the run, while Rutgers struggled to find rhythm, shooting just 30 percent (3 of 10) during the stretch.
“We were able to get consecutive stops more often in that first 10 and a half, 12 minutes,” Williams said. “I thought they did a really good job executing the change. We just did a poor job in the first half of executing the plan.”
The comeback turned what looked like a runaway into a back-and-forth battle down the stretch. However, a missed 3-pointer by graduate guard Diggy Coit with 30 seconds remaining ended Maryland’s chance to tie the game. The Terrapins were forced to foul in the closing seconds, and Rutgers held on with free throws.
A charge called on Washington with seven seconds remaining sealed Maryland’s fate.
The second-half performance stood in stark contrast to a sluggish opening 20 minutes. Maryland opened the game 0-for-5 from the field before freshman guard Darius Adams made one of two free throws.
The Terrapins shot just 1-for-9 in the first five minutes. The Terrapins briefly pulled within one at 7-6 with 14 minutes remaining, but that was as close as they would get before halftime.
Rutgers responded with a decisive 30-14 run, capped by a buzzer-beating 3-pointer from guard Tariq Francis to take a commanding 39-20 lead into the break. Francis finished with a game high 19 points.
“I was caught off guard in the first half,” Williams said. “I would not say fatigue. But it’s like anything. There’s always three parts [for] good programs, good teams. You have to play really hard, you have to prepare the right way, and then you have to execute. We didn’t do all three of those things, particularly in the first half.”
Maryland struggled to find offensive consistency throughout the half, finishing 9 of 28 from the floor (32 percent), similar to its shooting performance against Nebraska in its previous outing (9 of 26).
Turnovers again plagued the Terrapins. Maryland committed 14 giveaways in the first half alone, leading to 14 Rutgers points.
Rutgers ended up scoring 20 points off of 19 Maryland turnovers. The Scarlet Knights had just six turnovers.
“It’s hard to play, regardless of your team, if you give the ball to the other team at the rate that we had,” Williams said. “… The thing that hurts us is we still shot more balls than they did. But we gave them the ball 19 times in just a 68-possession game.”
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Maryland Athletics