No. 22 Maryland men’s basketball routs Louisville, 79-54

With 9:39 to go in the second half, freshman Noah Batchelor entered the game, with Maryland already running away with a win. Two minutes later, he got his chance to shine and pulled up for a mid-range jump shot and nailed it through contact.

Batchelor played limited minutes, but the jump shot gave Maryand a 30-point lead and was indicative of the bench performance for the terps. 

Multiple reserves contributed to Maryland’s onslaught, led by Ian Martinez’s 10 of Maryland’s 22 bench points.

The duo of Jahmir Young and Donta Scott carried the rest of the offensive load, combining for 33 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists as No. 22 Maryland men’s basketball coasted to a 79-54 win over Louisville in the Big Ten/ACC challenge.

“I think that’s the best game he’s played this far for us,” coach Kevin Willard said. “I think he’s starting to understand his role as a point guard. At Charlotte, he was more of a combo guard, more of a scoring guard. At this level, in Big Ten play, he’s gonna be a point guard and I think what I’m seeing is a young man that is developing very quickly into understanding how to play the point guard spot.”

Maryland striked first with a three-pointer courtesy of Young. Minutes later, the graduate student guard deflected an inbound pass which led to a Hakim Hart layup. Young was hot early, as he scored seven of Maryland’s 11 points less than five minutes into the game. 

Maryland got out to a 13-0 run early on, and Louisville missed 7 shots in a row during that run. 

The Terps’ defense once again got out the gates racing, as the Louisville offense struggled to move the ball up the court. The Cardinals were forced into several long possessions, forcing bad shots in desperation. 

Louisville turned the ball over five times in the first nine minutes, and the Terps scored 11 points off Louisville’s poor ball security as a result.

Young played with hustle and displayed his leadership, scoring a putback layup off a Patrick Emilien miss midway through the first half. Young continued to play above his size, as he finished the half with four rebounds — tied for the team lead at halftime.

Louisville’s offense ran through El Ellis, as he took initiative as he pushed the ball downhill and looked to score inside. However, the Cardinals’ offense was inconsistent with its shot selection, sometimes refusing to move the ball around. Louisville shot just 38.5% in the first half.

“Just from watching film we just wanted to make it hard for [Ellis],” Willard said. “Keep a body on him. We ran him off a lot of screens early in the game so we wanted to make him defend too, I think that’s a big part of it. He has a high usage, so really we just wanted to make everyone else dribble the basketball.”

Right before halftime, sophomore forward Brandon Huntley-Hatfield gave the Cardinals some juice with a block on one end and a layup on the other. Ellis then nailed a tough three in the face of Young and another tough shot inside with contact to cut the Maryland lead to eight points.

Scott joined Young with a hot start, as he led all scorers with 12 points at halftime. Young and Scott combined for 23 of Maryland’s 37 first-half points. 

Maryland took initiative in the first half, as the Terps had an advantage in forced turnovers, second-chance points, and assists.

Seconds out of the break, senior guard Don Carey swiped the ball away from Huntley-Hatfield and fittingly swished home a wide-open three. On the next two possessions, Scott and Hart both knocked down threes. 

The Terps started the second half a perfect 5-5 from three and extended their lead to 20 points with still over 15 minutes left. 

Maryland keyed in on Ellis, as the Terps forced him to take bad shots through the entirety of the game. The lack of a consistent second-scoring option held Louisville back. 

Maryland added another 10-0 run as Louisville shot 0-7 from the field. Louisville responded with an 8-0 run, but it was far too late for the Cardinals.

“I’m proud of the staff; staff got here in April and worked extremely, extremely hard to put together a roster that can go on the road and win by 30,” Willard said. “I’m really proud of these guys. This team is working extremely hard, they have a great attitude, they’re fun to coach, they’re fun to watch … So to get this done in eight months is great but we still have a tough four months ahead of us.”

The Terps cruised their way to yet another dominant win by double digits, 79-54.

Maryland will look to remain undefeated in its Big Ten debut against No. 16 Illinois on Friday.