Maryland pulls off senior night 84-73 win over Minnesota

Maryland turned to the paint early on Wednesday night and held off a late Minnesota run, pulling out an 84-73 win over Minnesota on senior night.

Guards Fatts Russell and Eric Ayala helped get the scoring started for Maryland before Qudus Wahab dropped six points in the opening minutes, helping the Terps build a slight lead in a back-and-forth game early. During the first five minutes, the Gophers were been charged by Malik Willis and Jamison Battle who combined to score the team’s first sixteen of eighteen points.

Both Wahab and Julian Reese found success in the low post in the first eight minutes, combining to help Maryland score 28 of their 37 first-half points in the paint. Donta Scott chimed in and was able to get his first points of the game on a second-chance opportunity, but despite Maryland’s impressive post presence, Minnesota shot the ball even better over the first eight minutes of the game. A big reason for the Gophers’ success stemmed around Battle, who finished with a game-high 39 points.

“He was on fire,” Russell said postgame. “He was making some tough shots, over hands, over two people, it’s all credit to him. He had a hell of a game today and when somebody’s going like that, it’s hard to get them off their rhythm so props to him for that.”

The Gophers also got a boost from their perimeter scoring, hitting seven of their first ten attempts from three, and were able to retake a one-point advantage, 21-20, midway through the first half. But the Terps would immediately respond with their own 5-0 run to retake the lead and momentum to close the half.

Minnesota finally began to miss some shots with about six minutes left in the half, many of which were caused because Maryland did a good job protecting the mid-range and forcing tough looks. For Maryland, it's been the inside-to-out offense that has continued to work. A kick out to Scott allowed him to get a good look and get fouled, but that was before Ayala drained a corner three to put Maryland up six with 3:30 to go in the half. On the following possession, Maryland made their fifth straight stop and Ayala found Hart open for an easy lay-in. A questionable call at the rim with just under a minute to play sent Battle back to the line for two free throws which cut the Maryland lead in half. Battle continued to roll, posting a game-high nineteen points on 7-of-13 shooting.

After Maryland took a 41-37 lead into the locker room, the Terps continued to establish their paint dominance early. Fatts gave himself an and-one opportunity on the first possession before Hakim Hart converted a tip-in off a second chance opportunity. Battle scored Minnesota's first points of the half after just over three minutes into the game, which shortened Maryland's lead to five.

Coming out of the first media timeout, Hakim Hart continued to make things happen for Maryland, scoring eight straight points for the Terps, and forcing a steal that ended in a flagrant one. The next three possessions all found Julian Reese with the ball down low. He first finished through a double team, then forced an extra-point opportunity before capping off the run with a basket on an offensive rebound, all of which gave Maryland its largest lead of the game at thirteen. Battle continued to fight and was single-handedly keeping the Gophers competitive in the game. His back-to-back threes put him at thirty-four points for the game and cut the Maryland lead down to ten at 61-51.

After Payton Willis scored seven of Minnesota’s nine points over a two minutes stretch, Maryland was able to reset the offense and find Ayala open for a three from the wing. With four minutes to go, Battle’s free throws shrunk the lead to three after Maryland seemingly had control of the game just minutes prior. Minnesota hung around in this game as Maryland complied the mistakes, bringing the Terp lead as close as two points, but Maryland never let Minnesota take the lead back.

With just two minutes to go, Battle knocked down a three to bring the lead to two, but a clutch corner three from Ayala was able to turn into a good defensive possession and a careless Gopher foul, allowing Hart to knock down two free throws to bring the lead back to seven. On the very next possession, the Hakim Hart show continued as he had fans on their feet after knocking down a contested three. After extending the lead to 11 with just 40 seconds remaining, the game was all but wrapped but Maryland was able to get Pavlo Dziuba and Simon Wright some playing time, but ultimately the Terps can pick up their fourth win in five games, 84-73. Hakim Hart, who led Maryland's scorers with nineteen, was able to score twelve of those points in the last 3:16 of the game, and that allowed the Terps to pull away and finish off the game.

“He made big-time shots for us down the stretch, got to the free-throw line. Defensively, able to guard multiple players. Hakim is somebody that does it all for us and jack of all trades is not an appropriate adjective because he’s a lot more than that, but he checks a lot of boxes for us.”

In their final games at Xfinity, Fatts Russell scored 16 points to go along with four rebounds and three steals. Eric Ayala added 15 of his own to go along with nine rebounds and two assists.

"He was disappointed he didn't get a double-double,” Manning said postgame. “I think coming into this game, that was a goal of his so he came up one rebound short. Eric [Ayala] did a really good job of boxing out and going to get rebounds for us. He got some really big-time rebounds in traffic. Eric is a player that he's worn a lot of different hats while he's been here and this year is probably the most challenging role that he’s ever had from the standpoint of every night out, for the most part, he gets the other team’s best defender.”

“When it’s all said and done, I’ll probably look back and I’m glad we won, go out with a bang.” Maryland has now won four of their last five games and both Ayala and Fatts showed clear confidence to close the season.

“We dangerous man,” Ayala said. “I said it in our last postgame, I wouldn’t want any game these next few weeks. We hot right now and we just got to carry the momentum into games and staying the course. Taking it one game at a time, it’s March, anything can happen at this point.”

Next: Maryland will play its final game of the regular season this Sunday against Michigan State before they travel to the Big Ten tournament.