Maryland men's basketball's offense falls flat, falling 68-57 vs Rutgers

Chase King
22 hours ago
3 min read

Maryland couldn’t get into a rhythm on offense as Rutgers stormed past in the second half.

Maryland men’s basketball (10-15, 3-11) visited the Rutgers Scarlet Knights (10-15, 3-11), where their first conference win streak would come to an end in a 68-57 loss.

Maryland and Rutgers faced off as part of the Big Ten’s new Rivalry Series. Maryland had its first rivalry series game against Iowa, which it won 77-70 in their highest moment of conference play.

Rutgers entered the game desperate for any signs of life, having lost their last seven.

Maryland would bring out the same three-forward starting lineup as they did in their wins against Iowa and Minnesota, which uses Collin Metcalf at the center spot.

Maryland started the game, how’d they finish it—slow on offense. They made only 1-of-8 to start the game and fell behind to Rutgers early.

Maryland would be able to catch up to Rutgers as neither offense was firing in the first half.

In the first half, Maryland found more success inside, scoring 18 points in the paint to Rutgers 8, but they found less success from the free-throw line, with Rutgers going 6-for-9 and the Terps going 1-for-5.

This ultimately led to an even first half as the score was tied 27-27 going into the break.

Coming out of the half, Rutgers scored on their first three possessions, which gave it a 7-point lead that the Terps would never come back from.

Rutgers’ Harun Zrno made 3 three-pointers early in the second half, which helped lead them to an eventual 12-point lead just eight minutes into the half.

After establishing the lead, Rutgers would find success inside, scoring 12 points in the paint in the second half to go with 13 free throws.

Maryland saw less success inside as Rutgers focused on contesting drives to the rims more on defense. This helped as the Terps would shoot less then 50% on layups in the second half and finished the game shooting only 10-for-20 on layup attempts.

This would be a killer for the Terps, who were more reliant on the three-point shot but continued their struggle from beyond the arc. They shot just 5-for-18 (27.8%) on threes in the second half.

Throughout the game, the Terps struggled to get to the line, only shooting 13 free throws. Head Coach Buzz Williams always reiterates that this team's offensive ceiling is reliant on getting to the line, especially with players like Darius Adams and Andre Mills.

“We shot 13 more balls than they did, but they shot 11 more free throws, and it can't be a push for our group, and it can't be a push on the road, and we can't play 100 minutes without the aid of free throw attempts,” said Williams.

Maryland would cut Rutgers’ lead to five points with five minutes left, but couldn’t continue to produce on the offensive end, which led to Rutgers running away with the win.

Maryland finished the game shooting 22-for-66 (33.3%) from the field, 7-for-30 from three, and 6-for-13 from the FT line.

A silver lining for the Terps was that they had one of their best performance on the offensive glass this season, with 18 offensive rebounds. Their season high is 20 rebounds, which they did twice, against UCLA and Wagner.

“We did a phenomenal job on the offensive glass again today,” said Williams.

Metcalf finished the game with six offensive rebounds in 23 minutes, and Solomon Washington finished the game with five.

Adams led the team in scoring with 13 points on 5-for-12 shooting from the field. Diggy Coit scored 12 points on 5-for-19 shooting.

Maryland will now have three days to travel and prepare for Northwestern, as they’ll face on Wednesday at 8 p.m.

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