Despite losing to No. 9 Michigan on Sunday, Maryland men’s basketball coach Mark Turgeon was encouraged by his team’s performance in the 69-61 decision. The Terps’ shooting improved from its paltry display against Penn State earlier in the week, they didn’t allow themselves to be buried into an early hole and turnovers weren’t the issue they have been all year.
Against Minnesota on Friday, many of those improvements carried over and created immediate success. Guard Anthony Cowan, who has suffered from off-and-on first halves recently, scored on a cut to the rim a minute in. He added five more points for Maryland within the first four minutes.
While the Terps slowed down at the end of both halves, they still held a 12-point advantage going into intermission. And despite pushing its lead to as much as 22 points, No. 24 Maryland had to hold on late, 69-60, to knock Minnesota off and conclude its regular season slate with a win.
“We had a great week of practice. I knew we were going to play well, I knew we were going to play with energy,” Turgeon said. “I didn’t think it was going to be quite that easy.”
Before tip-off Friday, the Terps’ two seniors — guard Andrew Terrell and forward Ivan Bender — were recognized at center court for their contributions, even though they had primarily come off the court. Inexperienced options on the fifth-youngest team in the country have pushed the team toward a double bye in the Big Ten tournament, and they remained in the hunt for it by closing the regular season with a win.
Bender featured for five minutes in the first half — picking up three fouls — but as expected, the graduating players weren’t the ones on display Friday. It didn’t include forward Bruno Fernando for long either, though, as the sophomore also dealt with foul trouble himself before halftime.
In a 24-second span midway through the opening period, Fernando picked up two. After the first — a near block that appeared quite clean — Fernando reassured Turgeon he could stay on. But on the offensive end, Fernando’s baseline spin drew another whistle. He went to the bench, featuring sparingly the rest of the opening period and scoring three points on 1-for-5 shooting.
“Obviously, I’m a big part of what we’re doing,” Fernando said. “And whenever I get in foul trouble, sometimes we go down as a team. But everybody was able to just stay locked in.”
Smith hit consecutive 3-pointers after Fernando left the floor. Then, Cowan fed him an alley-oop about three minutes later, and guard Aaron Wiggins scored in transition — part of the Terps’ 11 points off the Golden Gophers’ 11 first-half turnovers — forcing Minnesota coach Richard Pitino to call a timeout.
While Maryland (22-9, 13-7 Big Ten) turned the ball over just once in the first 14 minutes, play got sloppier late in the first. The Terps gave it away four times in the last six minutes, but the Golden Gophers (19-12, 9-11) couldn’t capitalize as both teams underwent scoring droughts at the end of the first half.
“When you go on the road, you have to take good shots, you can’t turn the ball over,” Pitino said. “We did neither of those in the first half, and it allowed then to get runouts.”
Pitino’s squad continued to throw away possessions in the second half, and Maryland finished with 18 points points off Minnesota’s 13 turnovers.
In the Terps’ 82-67 win over the Golden Gophers on Jan. 8, Cowan and Smith exploded for 27 and 21 points, respectively, their season-highs. The duo continued that success Friday, with Cowan finishing at a team-high 21 points and Smith providing his first Big Ten double-double, with 19 points, 11 rebounds and a mega-block on forward Jordan Murphy.
“I just jumped up,” Smith said. “I don’t know how I got it, but I did.”
Maryland held Murphy and guard Amir Coffey in check until late, when the latter got hot after the game was just about decided.
Due in large part to Coffey, the Terps’ lead — once as high as 22 points — continued to slim. Guard Darryl Morsell had locked Coffey down all night, but fouled him on 3-pointers twice down the stretch, part of a 13-2 Golden Gophers run to close the game.
Maryland still held a wide enough edge to warrant the introduction of Bender and Terrell for one last appearance on the Xfinity Center floor, finishing a performance the Terps’ talented younger players began and bucking a two-game losing streak as they enter postseason play.
“I still think our best basketball is ahead of us,” Turgeon said. “I really do.”
