Maryland men’s basketball walked out on the XFINITY Center court for the Terps’ first game of the season and looked to form some team chemistry against Niagara in coach Kevin Willard’s first game in charge.
While Maryland was favored by double-digit points, the game didn’t start out how many people expected. The Purple Eagles stayed close with the Terps for the whole first half, and were only down by seven at the end of the first half.
Niagara was a problem in the paint for Maryland to start the game. In the first half, the Purple Eagles out rebounded the Terps 17-13, and they outscored Maryland in the paint 20-10. What kept the Terps on top in the first half was their efficient three point shooting, as they went 5-11 from deep in the first 20 minutes.
Going into the second half, Willard made some big adjustments that showed some dividends in the stat line in the second half.
Maryland outscored Niagara by 15 in the second half, and the Terps accomplished that with improved effort on both sides of the ball.
First, the Terps went harder on the glass, out-rebounding the Purple Eagles by eight in the second half, 19-11.
Maryland also attacked the paint a little bit more while maintaining the threat from downtown. Maryland outscored Niagara on points in the paint in the second half 16-14, while also shooting 4-9 from three in the half. Niagara didn’t make a three all game, something Willard pointed out that made the game a lot more winnable overall for the Terps.
“I have a theory on these types of games, if you can defend the three and you can make threes it’s really hard to lose these games,” Willard said.
Another adjustment Maryland made in the second half was to come out with more energy on defense. The Terps pressed for a lot of the game, but as the game went along, you could see the chemistry coming to life more on defense. Maryland forced seven turnovers in the second half.
Despite the second half press success, Willard said the team has to fix up some parts of the press.
“It’s not really the first part of the press, the guards are working hard,” Willard said. “It’s the second line, third line guys that are really struggling with what to do once we drop back.”
The last problem Willard talked about after the game were the lineups he put out on the court. He mentioned that he’s had some growing pains in figuring out his bench lineup, and what the right fit should be.
“We were in a really good offensive rhythm, we were scoring,” Willard said. “Then I put two lineups out there that really hadn’t practiced together, and it was very evident that all of a sudden we got very stationary on offense towards the second ten minutes of the first half.”
Despite fighting through some growing pains to end the first half, the Terps still came out on top, 71-49.
Maryland will return to the court Thursday to take on Western Carolina.
