Maryland men's basketball drops fifth straight in 67-55 loss at UCLA

Chase King
9 hours ago
2 min read

Maryland men’s basketball (7-9, 0-5) dropped its fifth straight conference game in a 67-55 loss against the UCLA Bruins (11-5, 3-2), the first of a two-game stretch in Los Angeles.

The Terps entered the game looking for a win that could stop the bleeding of a disappointing start, having dropped their previous two games and their first four conference games, three of which were at home.

Maryland used the same starting lineup as their recent matchups, consisting of Darius Adams, Andre Mills, Isaiah Watts, Solomon Washington and Elijah Saunders.

Despite the lack of success in the win column, the Terps have found early success with their starting lineup. They saw their first start against Old Dominion, where they jumped out to a 17-0 lead, and then keeping up with both Oregon and Indiana early.

That wouldn’t change again as Maryland stormed out to an early 14-9 lead in the first six minutes of the game.

But once again, the Terps wouldn’t be able to keep up with their early bursts as UCLA stormed back. UCLA would switch to a 2-3 zone defense that tested Maryland’s willingness to shoot. Maryland would find itself stretching out their offensive possessions and shooting low-percentage shots.

UCLA's offense would also start to find more success while attacking the paint, while the Terps are missing star forward Pharrel Payne. The Bruins would score 16 points in the paint in the first half.

Maryland’s offense only scored two points in the final nine minutes of the first half; a large part of it was the team's 10 turnovers. UCLA scored 12 points off turnovers in the first half.

UCLA would finish the half on a 20-2 run and lead 38-21 going into halftime. Maryland would finish the half shooting only 9-for-30 (30%) from the floor and 3-for-15 (20%) from three, with 10 turnovers.

Despite the 17-point deficit, Maryland would not go away and would cut the deficit down to five points late into the second half.

Maryland’s defensive effort led the way as they would stop UCLA to only four points in the first six minutes of the half.

On the offensive side, Saunders would add three three-pointers in the second half, while Adams also added eight points of his own.

After coming off his best game of the year against Indiana, Saunders would set a new season high of 17 points, 12 rebounds– 10 of which were offensive rebounds.

The Terps would go on a 14-4 run down the stretch, where both Diggy Coit and George Turkson Jr. converted and-1 opportunities. That brought the Terps within five points of the Bruins with six minutes remaining.

After cutting the deficit to five, Maryland would enter a three-minute scoring drought that allowed UCLA to begin to separate, as they would end the game on an 11-4 run.

Even without Payne, Maryland out-rebounded UCLA 48-to-29, but it wouldn’t be enough. A big reason as to why was the inefficient shooting. They finished the game shooting only 30.2% from the field and 6-for-33 from three.

Maryland will now look to the ladder of its two-game stretch in Los Angeles, trying to pick up their first conference win against USC on Tuesday.

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