Maryland men’s basketball had a historic night on offense in a dominating 105-65 victory against Alcorn State at Xfinity Center on Dec. 12.
The Terps (6-4) cruised to victory while accomplishing several impressive feats, some of which hadn’t occurred in years. Head coach Kevin Willard’s squad appears to have found its footing offensively after mostly struggling through the first nine games this season.
Most points since 2011: The Terps’ 105 points are the most the team has scored in a game since chalking up 106 points against Longwood on Feb. 9, 2011. Then-coach Gary Williams surpassed John Wooden with his 665th career victory that night.
Willard’s team put together a balanced offensive effort by scoring effectively in the paint, at the free-throw line and from the 3-point line. Willard ended up one point shy of Williams’ onslaught, as the current coach emptied his bench and six different Terps scored in double figures — another impressive feat.
“If this was the second or third game of the season, I think this is what we would have been seeing all along from the young guys, from the guys coming off the bench,” Willard said. “Just to give them a chance to grow a little bit and get used to each other is huge.”
Most double-digit scorers since 2018: Six Terps hadn’t scored in double figures in a game since Maryland surged past Loyola, 94-71, on Dec. 11, 2018. However, Julian Reese (15), Jahmir Young (13), DeShawn Harris-Smith (12), Jordan Geronimo (12), Jamie Kaiser Jr. (12) and Jahnathan Lamothe (10) changed that.
Freshmen Kaiser and Lamothe both set career highs with their performances. Two other Terps also nearly joined the bunch, as Caelum Swanton-Rodger and Jahari Long each scored eight points on the night.
“I think the 20 assists on the 30 made field goals is great,” Willard said. “I thought the ball movement was really good. I didn’t think anyone tried to be selfish.”
Largest victory of margin since 2021: The Terps defeated the Braves by 40 points, their largest margin of victory since a 100-58 win against Wingate on Jan. 15, 2021.
Maryland only led by 14 points at halftime but exploded in the second half offensively and stifled the Braves to facilitate long scoring runs. The Terps played well from start to finish, holding their largest lead when the final buzzer sounded.
“It’s definitely a fun brand of basketball, it’s a huge reason why I came to Maryland,” Harris-Smith said. “Just because they play fast. Everybody gets to touch the basketball and today I feel like it was the first time we actually really got in the groove.”
Most 3-pointers since last season: Maryland finally addressed its 3-point shooting struggles with its best performance from beyond the arc since hitting 14 of 22 long-range shots against Northwestern on Feb. 26, 2023.
The Terps made 14 threes against Alcorn State while shooting 47 percent (14-of-30) from deep, both season highs. Harris-Smith, Kaiser, Lamothe, Long and Noah Batchelor all knocked down two or more 3-pointers.
“It’s contagious because [for] everybody it’s just positive energy,” Harris-Smith said. “You see your teammate make a shot [and it] just gives you positive energy to step into the next one and knock it down. I feel like we’re just being great teammates out there and just playing for each other. When you do that, the ball is going to go in the hoop.”
Second-longest home win streak: The Terps extended their home winning streak to 17, beginning after last season’s loss to UCLA. It marks the Terps’ second-longest home winning streak since winning 27 straight from Dec. 6, 2014 through Feb. 9, 2016.
“Being at home we’ve been able to get into a rhythm, we’ve been able to put a lot of work in [and] we’ve been able to have some time off,” Willard said. “We put a lot of individual work in over the last two weeks. So being at home and getting into a rhythm, I knew it was only a matter of time until we’d start shooting the ball better.”
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Maryland Athletics