Maryland beats UNLV 74-67 in Pharrel Payne and Myles Rice's return

Chase King
2 days ago
3 min read

Maryland basketball started its three-game stretch in the Players Era Festival tournament in Las Vegas against the UNLV Rebels with a 74-67 come-from-behind win.

After going down 43-36 early in the second half, the Terps would outscore the Rebels by 14 en route to a seven-point neutral court win.

The Terps had the latest tip-off of the day, with the game not starting until 12:20 a.m.

Two of the Terps' biggest stars, redshirt junior G Myles Rice and senior F Pharrel Payne, both came back for the start of the Players Era Festival.

Payne was a big part of the Terps' second-half effort, scoring 16 points in the second half and ending the game with 20 points.

He also joined the starting lineup with freshman G Darius Adams, redshirt freshman G Andre Mills, senior G Diggy Coit, and senior F Elijah Saunders. Rice would come off the bench for his second time this year.

Rice ended his first game back with eight points, six assists, and three rebounds in 23 minutes.

After a 12:20 a.m. tip-off, the Terps struggled offensively to start the game, finishing the first half with 15 turnovers. The Terps entered the game with 13.2 turnovers per game.

It was clear that the Terps hadn’t had enough time practicing as a team, as a lot of the turnovers came from miscommunications and bad entry passes to Payne.

"We were discombobulated, which is what they wanted; we made incredibly poor decisions, and we could never get in a rhythm," said Head Coach Buzz Williams.

"Very lucky, considering how high our turnover rate was, to have a chance to win."

Both teams had a bad time shooting the ball in the first half, with Maryland shooting 11-for-31 from the field and UNLV shooting 9-for-30 from the field.

The Terps were more reliant on their three-point shot than in prior games. UNLV was running a 2-3 zone, which made it harder to get to the rim and caused the Terps to take threes.

Due to the Terps' reliance on the threes, UNLV got ahead of the Terps from the free-throw line, shooting 16 free throws in the first half compared to the Terps' four free-throw attempts.

Maryland has been averaging 32.6 free-throw attempts a game, the sixth most in the country, before entering the game. Williams has said that getting to the free-throw line would be important for the success of their team.

The Terps would go into the half down 30-27 with freshman Aleks Alston leading the team with six points, his career high.

"I thought he was great," said Williams. "He has skill, he's tentative in regards to the physicality he has to play with."

The Terps did improve mightily in the rebounding department, which helped them stay close in the first half while giving the ball away so many times. The Terps out-rebounded UNLV 46 to 34.

"It was our best offensive rebound percentage, our best defensive rebound percentage, and we still gave them the ball 20 times," said Williams.

Maryland would play a cleaner game in the second half, only committing five turnovers in the second half, while shooting 50% from the field and 6-for-16 from the three-point line.

With the 20 turnovers the Terps committed, Williams said, "When you're giving the team the ball 22% of the time, you're playing against an avalanche."

The Terps still took a high volume of threes in the second half, but they did attack the zone more often with drives from guards like Mills and Adams, and getting it down low to Payne, where they found success.

Maryland shot 17 second-half free throws compared to their four in the first half. They were also able to defend without fouling, limiting UNLV to six second-half free throws. The Terps' success in the paint, both on offense and defense, helped propel them over UNLV.

Adams ended the game with 15 points and got to the line seven times. He has been getting to the line at a very high volume all year, entering the game with 8.8 free-throw attempts a game.

Down the stretch of the game, a pair of Terps seniors made big plays. Coit and Payne scored 18 of the Terps' last 21 points.

Coit ended the game shooting 3-for-10 from the three-point line, which included the dagger that brought the Terps to an 11-point lead with 1:43 left in the game.

Maryland will now look to their second game of three at the Players Era Festival against No. 12 Gonzaga, which beat No. 8 Alabama 95-85 in their first game of the Festival. The game is set to tip off at 9:30 p.m. on TruTV.

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