Poor shooting plagues Maryland men’s basketball in home opener; falls 70-60 to Georgetown

Photo by Kevin Snyder/Maryland Terrapins. Photo courtesy of Maryland Athletics.

Maryland men’s basketball had won 48 consecutive home openers heading into Friday night.

The Terps struggled to score early, and it did not get much better as an abysmal shooting night against Georgetown put an end to the nation’s third-longest streak.

Maryland shot 25% from the field and made just four 3-pointers in a 70-60 loss to the Hoyas at the Xfinity Center in College Park. Isaiah Watts, George Turkson Jr. and Darius Adams combined for three points in 54 minutes played.

Maryland’s (1-1) offense sputtered from the start of the game. The Terps made just one of their first nine field goal attempts and missed their first nine 3-pointers.

Turnovers exacerbated an already-poor offensive performance. Georgetown (2-0) capitalized on lackluster ball handling and reckless drives, forcing five Maryland turnovers in the first 10 minutes of the game.

The first came from freshman guard Guillermo Del Pino. The Spain native drew the start, even with transfer guards Myles Rice and Watts returning from injury. Junior guard Malik Mack pressed Del Pino on the Terps’ opening possession, forcing a turnover before drawing a foul.

Del Pino was benched for graduate guard David Coit and didn’t touch the floor for the rest of the game.

“Against any Coach [Ed] Cooley team, in order to have a chance to win the game, you have to win the fight. And part of the fight … is not giving them the ball,” coach Buzz Williams said Thursday. “We haven’t played a team that’s, thus far, as physical as they are defensively.”

Williams has recently emphasized physicality – a staple throughout his coaching career. That was one of the lone bright spots for Maryland’s offense early in the first half. The Terps embraced contact on nearly every drive to the basket.

In his Maryland debut, Rice took trips to the foul line at will. The Indiana transfer converted four straight free throws before attempting a shot. The Terps depended on the free throws to score throughout the first half, with 15 of their 27 points coming from the foul line.

“We made 30 free throws … if that’s the only stat you knew, you would think that it would be a really close game, if not a win,” Williams said Friday. “50% of our points came from the free-throw line, so we do need to get fouled.”

Coit finally broke the Terps’ shooting slump from beyond the arc when he connected on the Terps’ first 3-pointer of the game with less than four minutes left in the half.

Maryland had a historic shooting night just four days ago, converting 10 shots from behind the arc against Coppin State — a program record in a season-opener. 

Even after Coit brought Maryland within four, the Terps’ shooting woes continued. They finished the first half shooting 5-for-22 from the field and 2-for-13 from three.

“I would say the environment got to us a little bit,” Coit said. “Not getting in our offense, [not] getting good shots that we wanted. We made it tough for ourselves.”

Mack was everywhere for Georgetown in the first half, tallying six points, three rebounds and two steals. He was even better in the second half.

The Harvard transfer drained two 3-pointers to start the second half, growing the Hoyas’ lead to 11. Mack added a layup three minutes later to score eight points before the Terps had made a field goal in the second half.

Despite the Terps’ poor shooting, they had a chance to win. With under six minutes remaining, Rice intercepted an errant Hoya pass and converted a fast-break layup to cut the Hoyas’ lead to eight. The Terps largely kept the game within reach, but couldn’t string together solid defensive possessions.

“We didn’t handle their physicality very well. 42% of our shots were in the charge circle, and we made 33% of them,” Williams said. “We have to finish at a higher rate.”

Maryland’s home loss against an unranked non-conference opponent is rare. The Terps had a 23-game winning streak in such contests before the loss to the Hoyas.