Feature photo courtesy of Maryland Athletics.
On Tuesday night, Melo Trimble and No. 2 Maryland dueled with Marcus Paige and No. 9 North Carolina in Chapel Hill, but came up short 89-81 in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge matchup.
In his season debut, Paige led his team in scoring with 20 points. Trimble shined statistically, scoring 23 points, converting four of five threes and dishing out a career-high 12 assists. But eight turnovers by Trimble and a season-high 22 by the Terps spelled their first loss of the season.
The Terps struggled early in the game but rebounded by halftime. In the first 10 minutes of the game, the Terps were outscored 24-16 and committed 10 turnovers. In the final 10 minutes before halftime, the Terps outscored the Tar Heels 19-17, committing three turnovers. The Terps trailed by six at halftime.
The success carried over to the early part of the second half. With 13:40 left in the game, Trimble knocked down a three to tie the game and was simultaneously fouled by guard Nate Britt. Trimble hit the free throw and gave the Terps a 59-58 lead, their first of the game.
But it didn’t last long.
Eight seconds later, Paige hit a three to put the Tar Heels back up by two points. From there, they didn’t look back.
The Terps pulled within two as Trimble hit another three and made it 74-72 with 7:52 left in the game, but the Tar Heels closed the game out on a 15-9 run.
After starting the game 12 of 22 from three, the Terps missed their final four attempts.
Trimble and guard Rasheed Sulaimon combined to score 41 points. The two guards made 9 of 14 threes.
Paige returned to the court for the first time this season after sustaining an injury to his non-shooting hand on Nov. 5. Along with his 20 points, Paige led the way for the Tar Heels with five assists and made 7 of 12 field goals and 4 of 5 threes.
Along with Paige, North Carolina’s supporting cast showed up, too. Forward Brice Johnson added 16 points and six rebounds and guard Joel Berry II scored 14 points and dished out five assists. Forward Kennedy Meeks stuffed the stat sheet with 12 points on 6 of 11 shooting, six rebounds, three assists, three steals and two blocks. Forward Justin Jackson led the way defensively with five steals.
Despite shooting 56 percent (14-25) at the free throw line, the Tar Heels earned their sixth win of the season.
For the Terps, it was their first loss of their highly anticipated 2015-16 campaign.
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