Maryland men's basketball falls to Gonzaga's offensive clinic in 100-61 loss

Chase King
16 hours ago
4 min read

The Maryland Terrapins lost 100-61 to the No. 12 Gonzaga Bulldogs, who put on an offensive clinic in their second game of the Players Era Festival.

Maryland had an uphill battle to climb entering the game against the No. 3-ranked team in KenPom, but it was made a lot harder when Gonzaga put on a shooting clinic.

The Bulldogs, who entered the game as a 32.8% three-point shooting team, finished 14-for-33 (42.4%) from the three-point line and 37-for-64 (57.8%) from the field.

The day before Maryland won its first of three games in the Players Era Festival against UNLV, 74-67.

Two big additions for Maryland returned against UNLV in senior F Pharrel Payne and redshirt junior G Myles Rice, and they would be able to play against Gonzaga.

The Terps had the same starting lineup for the second day in a row, consisting of freshman G Darius Adams, redshirt freshman G Andre Mills, senior G Diggy Coit, senior F Elijah Saunders and Payne.

Gonzaga would start fast, taking a quick 10-4 lead over the Terps after scoring four early points in the paint and nailing two early three-pointers.

It wouldn’t get any better for the Terps early on as Gonzaga kept its momentum and stormed to a 32-11 lead, scoring 14 points in the paint and cashing in six three-pointers.

On the defensive side, Maryland would send double teams down low, which would not end up working, as it freed up Gonzaga's perimeter shooters, who did not waste their opportunities for open threes. Gonzaga opened up the game 6-for-10 from behind the arc.

"Of all of the things that they are the best at, shooting the threes was what they were worst at," said Head Coach Buzz Williams, "[Braden Huff], [Graham Ike] commands so much presence inside. I thought our plan was right, our execution of the plan wasn't great, and then it just kind of disintegrated."

Maryland would storm back, turning their 21-point deficit into only 9 points after junior Isaiah Watts and Adams made a pair of three-pointers, and Adams and Payne combined to take eight free throws in a 16-4 run.

Before the half, Gonzaga would get back to their early success from behind the arc, draining three more and extending their lead to 47-32 at the half. Gonzaga went into the half shooting 9-for-18 from three.

Maryland's sloppy offense would continue as it ended the first half with nine turnovers. A lot of the turnovers came from bad passes, which Gonzaga was able to get their hands on.

Payne ended the first half with three turnovers, and the biggest one was an offensive foul. Payne found himself with early foul trouble along with Elijah Saunders. Both of them missed at least eight minutes in the first half, which helped lead to Gonzaga's success in the paint.

Gonzaga would not slow down from behind the arc to start the second half. They shot 5-for-8 from behind the arc in the first 10 minutes of the second half, which paired with 10 points in the paint, got them out to a commanding 74-48 lead.

Gonzaga’s junior F Emmanuel Innocenti and grad student guard Steele Venters killed the Terps from behind the arc, shooting a combined 9-for-14.

Gonzaga would never lose control as they went on a 26-13 run in the last 10 minutes of the game.

"To be able to play a team that's good enough to win the National Championship in the fourth week of the season, there's a lot for us to grow from," said Williams.

Maryland would once again struggle to keep the ball safe, finishing with 18 turnovers, after recording 20 in its win against UNLV.

"In Vegas, we have had a turnover rate problem, and that correlates with many other things that we struggle with," said Williams

"We're playing on a broken floor, we're playing in transition defense too much... We can't give the ball to the other team at the rate we are."

Maryland would also struggle shooting, making only 36% of its shots from the field and 24% from three-point range.

However, they did beat Gonzaga in the free-throw margin, shooting 23 free-throw attempts compared to the Bulldogs' 15.

Unlike against UNLV, however, Maryland struggled on the glass, getting out-rebounded by Gonzaga 39-29. A big reason for that was Payne and Saunders' early foul trouble. By the end of the game, Payne had only played 20 minutes while Saunders had finished with 27.

"When you're playing against a team like Gonzaga, there's nothing that you can hide, because they are so good, and you are going to be exposed, and we were exposed on multiple levels," said Williams.

Despite playing only 20 minutes, Payne led the Terps in scoring again, finishing with 14 points on 5-of-10 shooting and seven rebounds.

Maryland will get to play again in their third and final game of the Players Era Festival on Wednesday. The opponent will be decided following the last game on Tuesday, No. 8 Alabama vs UNLV.

"The best thing may be that we're going to play again in 24 hours," said Williams. "How will we respond to what just transpired?"

Maryland will now face Alabama on Wednesday, Nov. 26 for a 9 PM local (12 AM EST) tipoff.

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