Maryland men’s basketball coach Kevin Willard called his team’s performance “perplexing” after its last game, a three-point road loss at Minnesota. The Terps had the opportunity to erase their coach’s comments Thursday, and they did that with a 64-57 win over Big Ten bottom feeder Michigan (6-10, 1-4 Big Ten) behind a 22-point performance from Donta Scott.
The fifth year forward was electric in the second half, converting on all four of his three point attempts while spurring a 43-point Terps performance across the final 20 minutes.
“I already knew I can make shots. It was just a matter of time before I did it,” Scott said. “Once I made them I already knew that I could make a couple more … so I said why not?”
Despite the win, Maryland (10-6, 2-3 Big Ten) continued its perplexing ways early on. It took a quick four-point lead following a monster slam off a turnover by Scott. But the offense stalled from there, scoring just two points across the ensuing eight minutes.
Michigan began the contest 2-for-9 from the field, similarly struggling to establish an offensive rhythm. The Wolverines were without leading scorer and assister Dug McDaniel, who missed his first game as part of a road-only suspension.
With both teams ice cold, Michigan caught fire first. Juwan Howard’s team used a balanced scoring attack, seeing four players record between six and eight points in the first half.
Maryland started to get into its full-court press later on in the opening period. Jahmir Young swiped an inbound pass and connected on a layup. DeShawn Harris-Smith drew an offensive foul on the very next possession, also in full-court press, before connecting on a layup of his own to give the Terps a 12-10 lead.
But the Terps went into the locker room with lots to think about, finishing the first 20 minutes with eight made field goals on 24 attempts. Young was the only player in double figures with 10 points, while Harris-Smith put together one of his best halves of the season with six points and three rebounds. Maryland’s remaining rotation combined to score just five first-half points and looked sluggish on its home floor, trailing by 12 points at the half.
Harris-Smith and Julian Reese combined for eight points early in the second period to get Maryland back within six points. From there, it was the Scott show.
The fifth-year forward put on a dazzling display, scoring 10 of Maryland’s next 15 points with an array of confident threes and clutch free throws. Scott scored a season-high 22 points — 20 of those came in his electric second half.
“Once I got going the energy started kicking in,” he said. “And then everybody started to feed off my energy.”
The Terps rode off their veteran’s success as the Xfinity Center crowd got progressively louder and the Terps’ defense got progressively tougher. The Wolverines converted on just 10 second-half field goals, shooting a dismal 32 percent from the field after converting on half of their attempts in the opening period.
One of Scott’s four second-half threes gave the Terps the lead they never gave back, converting with 7:13 remaining to take a 52-50 advantage. From there, the lead grew to as much as seven, but Michigan never bowed down.
Forward Olivier Nkamhoua connected on a stepback jumper with 2:38 left to cut Maryland’s lead back down to a single point. A pair of Young free throws put the Terps up three, while the Wolverines failed to convert on their final five shot attempts in the waning minutes.
While it wasn’t always pretty, the Terps needed a win, and they did just that against the team ranked dead last in the Big Ten standings.
“We’re pretty much at a must win in every game … the beginning of the season kind of put us behind the eight ball,” Willard said. “But I also think that this is a team that, if we can get better offensively, the way we play defensively is gonna give us a good chance.”
