Maryland Terrapins forward Robert Carter Jr. posted up on a defender in the paint before dishing the ball out to guard Jared Nickens on the right corner. Swish.
With 1:55 left in the first half, Nickens hit his third three-pointer of the evening. Nickens finished the game with 16 points on six of eight shooting from the field and four of six from behind the three-point line. He tied his career high for three pointers made.
“I feel like everything is going in,” Nickens said. “Coach and my teammates have the confidence in me, so I just shoot it when I’m open.”
Nickens and his confidence helped the No. 2 Terps finish the game with a 58 percent field goal percentage and convert on half of their threes. They hit seven of 14 threes en route to a 80-63 victory over Cleveland State on Saturday that helped them improve to a 6-0 on the season.
“He can flat out shoot it, I think he’s going to make every one,” head coach Mark Turgeon said. “The two he missed were wide open. The good thing is we are getting him open shots, we’re getting a lot of open shots.”
Turgeon was impressed with how the Terps spread the ball around against the Vikings. He explained that in the last couple of games the team had 29 and 26 open shots.
“That’s hard to do,” Turgeon said. “We got a lot of open looks again today.”
After assisting on half (15/30) of their made baskets in a 86-63 victory against Rhode Island to win the Cancun Challenge, the Terps picked up right where they left off. In tonight’s win over the Vikings, the Terps assisted on 22 of their 29 converted field goals.
In the win over Rhode Island, the Terps held a 16-point advantage at halftime. Against the Vikings they led 37-33.
After making ten of their first 12 shots against the Vikings, the Terps endured a brief cold spell. They missed two of their next eight shots and faltered on four attempts from behind the three-point line during that span.
But the Terps closed the first half out making two of their final three shots, both shots were threes made by Nickens.
At halftime the Terps were shooting 61 percent from the field and 50 percent from three. Nickens entered the break with 11 points on four of five shooting and a trio of triples.
The Vikings made their presence felt down low in the first half as they scored 22 points in the paint. Forward Demonte Flannigan led the way in the first 20 minutes with 11 points. He made five of 11 field goals.
Something changed in the second half. After guard Rasheed Sulaimon hit a layup, center Diamond Stone dunked it twice and Carter Jr. dunked it once. Two minutes and 44 seconds later, the Terps four-point lead was up to 12.
“Coach was mad at us going into halftime and we just responded,” Nickens said. “We didn’t want to make it a close game.”
The Terps outscored the Vikings 43-30 in the second half.
Nickens said the team’s decision to shift to a full court press in the early part of the second half slowed down Cleveland State.
Nickens made an impact defensively late in the game. With two minutes and 37 seconds left he helped force a shot clock violation as he closely defended guard Kenny Carpenter’s three point attempt. The shot failed to hit the rim.
“Jared was good,” Turgeon said. “He keeps growing defensively, keeps getting better… It’s nice to have him. He can really stretch the floor for us and open things up for our big guys too.”
While Nickens led the team with his four threes, Carter Jr., who came into the game with one triple through five games, hit a pair of three point buckets.
“With our team, someone is always free, so we just have to be good at shooting the ball,” Carter Jr. said. “It’s hard to double us and leave someone open.”
Carter Jr. scored a team-high 17 points. He made six of eight field goals and grabbed eight boards.
After averaging seven threes on 20 attempts per game in their first five contests, the Terps made seven threes in only 14 attempts against Cleveland State.
And when they didn’t hit their threes, the Terps battled for offensive rebound. They finished the night with ten. Nickens, the team’s leader from deep for the night had one.
On his last three-point attempt of the evening, Nickens missed. Carter Jr. secured the offensive rebound and swung it around to point guard Melo Trimble. Trimble missed but Nickens was there for the quick put-back.
“Jared [Nickens] was amazing tonight,” Carter Jr. said.
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