Maryland was able to establish an early lead, carried it into double-digits, and never looked back as the Terps comfortably beat Quinnipiac 83-69.
Maryland started the game with the expected starting five of Fatts Russell, Eric Ayala, Hakim Hart, Donta Scott, and Qudus Wahab as both sides traded shots before Fatts kicked off the scoring. After the two sides were tied at five apiece, Maryland went on a 14-3 run that was led by the starters and closed out by the bench. After Wahab, Fatts, and Ayala kicked off the run, Turgeon subbed in his new additions as Ian Martinez, Xavier Green, and Julian Reese checked into the game but the starting five found themselves on the court for much of the night.
Maryland flashed a full-court press with their subs before Reese drew a quick personal foul, but there was plenty of good out of the freshman forward. The Baltimore native notched two blocks within a three-minute span and was able to find his touch on the other end after starting the game 3-of-4 from the field. “[Kevin] Marfo you know, he came from SEC, played Texas A&M last year and ‘JuJu’ did a nice job on him so when he's fresh, he's good,” Turgeon added. “He just keeps getting better and he's willing you know, he likes to learn, he likes to listen well and he keeps getting better.” Pavlo Dziuba checked in halfway through the first half and knocked down a three from the corner to extend Maryland’s lead to double digits. The Terps would grow the first-half lead to as much as 20 before Quinnipiac closed on an 8-4 run, giving Maryland a 41-25 halftime cushion.
The addition of Russell gave Maryland a chance to push the tempo in transition, evidenced by his first bucket and amplified just minutes later after blowing by his defender at the top of the key to push the lead to 14-5. While Russell was also victim of a SportsCenter top ten-worthy dunk by Matt Balanc, his presence helped stabilize the offense as Ayala worked to get open. “Sometimes I think he's surprised himself he's so fast, all of a sudden he’s at the rim,” Maryland head coach Mark Turgeon said after the win. The veteran guard knocked down his first two jumpers, scoring his 1,000 career point in the process to become the 58th player in Maryland history to accomplish the feat.
“58th all-time in our unbelievable history of Maryland basketball, so it's pretty special group when you start looking at the names of the 58 guys that have gotten there,” Turgeon said afterwards. “It's great to see. Happy for him and, you know, he hit a couple of big threes in the second half. We got to get him going.”
Despite making just two threes, Maryland closed the first-half shooting nearly 53% from the field as the presence of Wahab and Reese allowed an inside-out presence.
“That's just nice to have low post scoring I mean you know, we couldn't do that last year,” Turgeon added. “There's a lot of different guys we can post, post Eric [Ayala], post Donta [Scott], post [Julian], post [Qudus] and Pablo post some so a lot of different guys but yeah, it's nice when you just call a play and throw it in there and then teams start doubling and you know, we got a lot of good players out there so we can make them pay so it's nice to have you know. Our games different, our games still about throwing the ball inside getting the ball taking the ball in the paint, little bit different than the next level and so it's a nice weapon to have.”
It was the inside presence that kicked off the second half as Wahab scored the first four points in the paint, then knocked down a mid-range jumper to push the lead to 47-28. But after Wahab’s first bucket less than 20 seconds into the half, Turgeon called a surprising timeout. “Two guys ran the play wrong you know, we're drawing it up and telling them when to cut and what to do and two guys ran it wrong so I just want to get their attention you know. I wouldn’t have done it if I was going to need my timeouts, I didn't need my timeouts tonight so you know you use these games to get better and I thought we were much more efficient offensively after that you know.”
That efficiency paid off as Ian Martinez helped stretch that lead further after nearly hitting his head on the rim on an alley-oop from Hakim Hart, followed by a deep three as the shot clock expired to push the lead to 58-34.
Maryland grew the lead to as much as 25 with six minutes left before Quinnipiac assembled a 15-5 run heading into the final minute, but it wasn’t enough as Marcus Dockery, James Graham, Simon Wright, and Pavlo Dziuba closed the game. Maryland finished with five scorers in double-figures with Wahab leading the way (17 points, 6 rebounds).
“It's good to see all five of those guys out there. I played them together more tonight than I have so, you know, we've tried to divide the teams up in practice. We have competitive practices, so you know, it's just going to get better and better as the more games we can play, but yeah it was good. It's a good group.”
Maryland will host George Washington on Thursday for a 6:30 PM tipoff.