Maryland men's basketball's 15 turnovers leads to decisive 82-62 loss to Ohio State

Chase King
6 minutes ago
3 min read

Another conference losing streak begins to build in College Park as Maryland is in the midst of its worst season in decades.

Maryland Men’s Basketball (8-13, 1-9 Big Ten) hosted the Ohio State Buckeyes (14-7, 6-5 Big Ten), where they would extend their loss streak to four in an 82-62 loss.

The Terps entered the game off the back of three losses with an average margin of 30 points, the last two being a 43-point loss against No. 10 Michigan State, which was the worst Maryland loss since 194, and a 30-point loss against No. 12 Purdue, which was the worst Maryland loss in the XFINITY Center.

Myles Rice would be ruled out with an injury, and without the guard, Maryland would opt into a larger starting lineup with forward Collin Metcalf taking his place for his second start of the season, despite only having 0.5 points per game in his 19 appearances in 7 minutes per game.

“I thought that our 11th lineup change was to see if we could look eye-to-eye, a little bit more from a height. length standpoint,” said Head Coach Buzz Williams. “And tonight, fight from such a deficit on the glass.”

The Terps would benefit from extra size, out-rebounding their opponent for the first time since their win against Penn State. They out-rebounded the Buckeyes 11-to-10 on the offensive glass and 28-to-26 in total rebounds.

The Terps rebounding shined out of the gate, getting two offensive rebounds in the first two minutes, which would help them get out to a quick 6-4 lead.

That would be their last lead of the game as Ohio State started to separate with their shooting, going 9-for-15 to start the game and 3-for-5 from three. On the otherside, Maryland started the game 0-for-7 from three.

Despite the shooting, the Terps would find a way to stay competitive in the first half with success inside. They shot 9-for-11 on two-pointers in the first half, highlighted by a SportsCenter Top 10 level dunk by Andre Mills.

But the success in the paint would be dampened by sloppy offense, as Maryland finished the first half with nine turnovers, which led to 13 points for Ohio State.

Ohio State brought a 42-30 lead into the half while shooting 53.6% from the field and 55.6% from three.

Turnovers have played a big part in the Terps troubles so far, being 256th in the country with 12.5 turnovers per game, as well as being 341st in the league in assist-to-turnover ratio.

“I think the problem was we turned the ball over 100% more than they did, and obviously they scored 24 points off of our turnovers,” said Williams

“I thought their zone caused us problems, particularly in the first half [...] a lot of our turnovers were from that.”

The two teams would trade points at the start of the second half before Ohio State finally put the game out of reach with a 9-0 run halfway through the second half.

After beating Maryland from behind the arc and in transition in the first half, the Buckeyes took over the paint in the second half, where they would score 18 of their points and earn 19 free-throw attempts.

Maryland shot 12-27 (44.4%) from the field and 6-for-15 (40%) from three in the second half, but it wouldn’t be enough as Ohio State steamrolled to a 20-point lead.

The bright spot for the Terps was forward Elijah Saunders, who finished the game with a season high 20 points while shooting 8-for-13 from the field and 3-for-6 from three.

“I thought Elijah [Saunders] was much more confident offensively. That helped us tonight versus his production on Sunday,” said Williams.

Saunders would get into a little trouble in the last minutes of the game as he got into a scuffle with Ohio State’s Taison Chatman that would result in both players getting ejected.

The Terps will now look to end their four-game losing streak on the road against Minnesota on Sunday at 2 PM.

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