Maryland men's basketball first home opener in nearly 50 years, fall 70-60 vs. Georgetown

Chase King
1 day ago
3 min read

In the first highly anticipated game of the Buzz Williams era, Maryland men's basketball dropped its first home opener since 1976 after falling vs. Georgetown, 70-60, on Friday night, the first in a four-year series.

Maryland shot only 25% from the field in their loss, the lowest field goal percentage since 2023 in a loss vs. Villanova, along with only 19% of their three-point attempts.

“You’re not going to win a game when you make 33% of your layups,” said Head Coach Buzz Williams. Out of all of their field goals, 42% of them came from right in front of the basket.

The Terps came out flat to start the game as Georgetown opened up on an 11-0 run. The Hoyas would never look back as the Terps trailed for all 40 minutes.

This would be a problem in the second half as well, as Georgetown started 10-2 in the second half and would extend a 5-point halftime lead to 13.

“You can’t play 32 minutes of many college games that we’re going to play and have a chance to win,” said Williams.

To start the game, it looked like the Terps were forced away from the paint, missing three three-point attempts to start the game on their way to their quick 11-point deficit.

As well as that, the Terps had committed three fouls and three turnovers in the first four minutes of the game.

Georgetown was able to maintain a steady lead over the Terps throughout the first half, as Maryland struggled to get going on offense, but would begin to tighten up on defense, limiting Georgetown to 40% from the field and 0-8 from three.

After a three-pointer in the final seconds of the first half by Myles Rice, the Terps would go into halftime down 32-27.

Rice was playing in his first game as a Terp, and with 19 points, 10 of which came from the FT line.

Rice also ended the game with four turnovers, something that Williams pointed out after the game. He said, “Offensively, Maryland needs to play with as low a turnover rate as possible, and particularly the prime ball handler.”

“I turned the ball over four times. I can’t do that,” said Rice after the game.

In the second half, Georgetown would start to break away, with the help of Maryland natives Malik Mack and Caleb Williams, along with junior guard KJ Lewis. All three Georgetown players would put up double digits in the second half. Georgetown would build up to a twenty-point lead with 12 minutes left in the game.

Following a fadeaway three-pointer by David Coit, the comeback effort would begin for the Terps. Rice would lead the comeback campaign along with Pharel Payne and David Coit, and they brought it within seven points, but would ultimately lose after Malik Mack hit a dagger three-pointer.

Payne ended the game with 17 points and had a team-high 15 free throw attempts. He was shooting 58.2% from the FT line his junior year at Texas A&M and has started the season shooting 22-24 from the line.

In total, the Terps shot 37 FT attempts in their loss. That has become a trend for them as they shot 25 FT attempts against Coppin State and 38 FT attempts in an exhibition game against UMBC.

After the game, Williams said, “Can we play to get fouled? Because I think that's going to be important, relative to our roster makeup. And can we defend without fouling?”

The Terps now drop to 1-1 on the season and will look to bounce back vs. Alcorn State on Tuesday, Nov. 11 at 7:00 p.m. on BTN+.

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