Maryland entered halftime down nine against Richmond but found their groove in the second half before the Terps topped the Spiders 86-80.
Maryland shot over 65% from the field in the second-half and used a 17-3 run to snag their first win in the Bahamas. “What a great win for us,” head coach Mark Turgeon said following the win. “We played a team that I thought played exceptionally well in Richmond. Every mistake we made, which was quite a bit in the first half defensively, they made us pay. It felt like every ball bounced to them and didn't bounce to us.”
Eric Ayala seemed to be the sole point of the offense in the opening minutes of the game as he finished with 14 points on 6-of-8 shooting through the first half, but Hakim Hart knocked down a pair of jumpers in what proved to be a prelude for the second half. The junior forward finished with a season and game-high 24 points on 8-of-9 shooting, including 4-of-5 from deep, in a much-needed offensive breakout performance. “Eric [Ayala] is gonna give us offense, Fatts [Russell] is gonna give us offense, [Qudus Wahab] is gonna give us on offense,” Turgeon added. “You know, he was better tonight, Juju [Reese] is going to give us all offense. Donta [Scott] is still a work in progress, figuring himself out. He was great on defense. So, to add Hakim out there scoring for us is huge for us. I mean, we haven't shot the ball well and I don't know we shot from three I haven't looked at stats yet, but we made a lot for us, made a lot of threes for us. So, it's big, it's really big for us and I can't tell you how big this win is.”
Maryland also turned to a press in the second-half at times as Turgeon worked to disrupt Richmond’s halfcourt offense. “We're just trying to shorten the clock, so we didn't have to guard them for 30 seconds. So, they would start their offense with 21 or 20 so you had to garden for 20 seconds and that's a lot easier than 30 seconds as fast as they move and as well as they cut so that was the whole idea behind it.”
The move proved to disrupt Richmond’s shooting as they shot 40% in the second half, compared to 51% in the first, and scored just nine points over the final 6:49.
After Richmond pushed the lead to 71-63, Maryland would finally get over the hump in a game that featured 11 lead changes and three ties. Donta Scott knocked down his first triple before Russell and Hart knocked through layups to cut the deficit back to one. After Richmond split a pair of free throws, Ayala drive to the bucket but it was Hakim Hart who’d clean up on the play and splash through a triple, giving Maryland their first lead of the game with just over four minutes remaining. The offensive stretch for the Terps was the start of a 23-9 run to end the game in a performance that showed a lot to Turgeon.
“The guys show me a lot about themselves tonight. And just I mean, the effort that they played with in the second half was just terrific.” It helped that the Terps held an advantage in the stands.
“The fan support was terrific. It was so loud in here. I think we have over 200 fans here, which is about 150 more than anybody else in the building,” Turgeon joked.
But the effort in the second-half resonated with Turgeon as the Terps will look to bounce back on Saturday between the winner of Mississippi State or Louisville.
“Really a great win for us just a great win, we needed it. We needed a battle like that and come back and do what you have to do. I know you guys are watching games like I'm watching. It's really hard to win a college basketball game when you're playing good teams, so proud of my group.”
The championship game is set for 12:30 PM on Saturday.