Maryland men’s basketball turns in dominant defensive performance, downs Rutgers, 63-46

When Maryland men’s basketball has had success this season, it’s come on the heels of its strong defense, which ranked sixth in the country in KenPom adjusted efficiency entering Sunday.

Rutgers is far from a juggernaut offensively – it possesses the lowest-scoring offense in the Big Ten.

Nonetheless, a stingy Maryland (15-13, 7-10 Big Ten) defense gave the Scarlet Knights all kinds of fits Sunday, putting forth arguably its best defensive performance of the season in a 63-46 win at Jersey Mike’s Arena.

Rutgers (14-13, 6-10 Big Ten) shot just 37 percent from the field, 18 percent from 3-point range, and committed 13 turnovers. The Scarlet Knights’ 46 points were the lowest by a Maryland opponent this season.

“I thought we did a really good job just knowing our personnel, who we’re guarding,” Jordan Geronimo said.

The turning point came in the latter part of the first half. With the Terps leading by two, Jahmir Young passed out of a double team and found Geronimo wide open for a corner three – just his seventh triple of the season – to beat the shot clock. That shot sparked a 10-0 Maryland run to stretch its lead to a dozen at halftime, holding Rutgers scoreless over the final 6:09.

“Even going into halftime, I thought we should’ve been up 18 or 20, just how well we played defensively,” coach Kevin Willard said.

Maryland’s momentum carried into the second half. Rutgers went nearly 12 minutes of game time without a field goal in a drought that stretched across both halves as the Terps built their lead as high as 21.

Willard hasn’t utilized a ton of zone defense this year – the Terps are primarily a man-to-man, switching defense. But Maryland played a lot of zone on Sunday, forcing a Rutgers team that struggles from beyond the arc (334th in Division I in three-point percentage entering Sunday) into tough perimeter shots.

Rutgers found some success against the zone toward the middle of the second half, scoring on six straight possessions to cut the Maryland lead to 10. 

But Willard went back to a switching man-to-man defense and the Terps stretched the lead back to 17 with seven minutes remaining to put the game out of reach. Rutgers scored just nine points over the final 10:31.

“I feel like that showed a lot about our character, especially being on the road,” said Julian Reese, whose 15 second-half points helped the Terps pull away. “I just kind of huddled the guys  up, told them ‘Hey guys, we’re still up 10 … let’s just stay calm, stay together.’”

Maryland’s offensive numbers weren’t overly impressive – the Terps shot 41 percent from the field and 32 percent from the perimeter – but it was a noticeable improvement from their first meeting with Rutgers, a 56-53 home loss on Feb. 6.

“Earlier in the year, we would go through really tough stretches where we would miss shots and it would affect our defense,” Willard said. “We’re much better now. When we miss shots, we’re not getting down as much as we were before.”

Rutgers coach Steve Pikiell made it a priority in both matchups to keep Young from getting open looks – the star point guard shot just 3-for-17 from the field in the first meeting. As many teams have done this season, the Scarlet Knights blitzed Young on nearly every pick-and-roll action to keep the Big Ten’s third-leading scorer from getting downhill or into his pull-up jumper.

Young struggled from the field again on Sunday, shooting 2-for-9, but rather than forcing the issue, he found his teammates for easy baskets all afternoon, dishing out a season-high nine assists.

Maryland’s frontcourt benefitted from the attention Young drew. Reese scored a game-high 20 points on 8-for-11 shooting, and Geronimo delivered one of his best performances of the season, notching 11 points and a season-high 11 rebounds. 

“I had a lot of family in the crowd so it was great to be able to go out there and do what I had to do,” Geronimo said. 

Geronimo’s athleticism and versatility have been a huge factor in Maryland’s defensive success, but he’s struggled to provide consistent production on the offensive end. When he has, it’s made a big difference for the Terps, who are 4-1 when Geronimo scores in double figures.

Willard expressed his approval of his team’s effort, which has never wavered despite the Terps sitting in the bottom half of the Big Ten standings. They practiced for three hours on Saturday, according to Willard.

“This time of year, you can either pack in a little bit, have a [poor] attitude, or you can try to keep on fighting to make something happen,” Willard said. “… They’ve had a great attitude all year and we’ve played hard all year.”