Seth Allen

Dez Wells may only be a sophomore, but the Terrapins men’s basketball forward has seen plenty in his college career. The Xavier transfer has played three NCAA tournament games, served a suspension for his role in a brawl and earned his way into two teams’ starting lineups.

But last night, the Raleigh, N.C., native saw something he hadn’t seen since his days playing for Hargrave Military Academy. He saw more than 30 three-point attempts.

“It’s not too often we see offenses like that,” he said after the Terps notched an 83-74 win over Lafayette before 10,882 at Comcast Center. “There were a lot of threes.”

It comes with the territory when facing Lafayette, a Patriot-League school known for running the Princeton offense. And for much of last night, the willingness to step beyond the arc and unleash the three worked in the Leopards’ favor.

The Terps withstood a torrid shooting night from Lafayette to escape with the nine-point win and extend their winning streak to three games. It was a surprisingly slim victory considering the Leopards were picked to finish fourth in the middling Patriot League this season, and many pundits expected them to present little challenge for coach Mark Turgeon’s deep and talented squad.

Then again, pundits don’t necessarily account for lights-out shooting performances. Lafayette, coming off Friday’s 52-point drubbing at No. 8 Kentucky and Sunday’s 14-point loss at Morehead State, impressed from three-point range all night. Whenever the Terps seemed poised to pull away with a blowout, the Leopards spotted up from the beyond the arc and swooshed a trey.

Lafayette finished 15-of-32 on 3-pointers for a jaw-dropping 46.9 percent. Guard Seth Hinrichs shot 6-of-11 from deep and finished with a game-high 20 points. The Terps, meanwhile, shot a paltry 3-of-15 from beyond the arc.

Desperate to squelch the prolific distance shooting, Turgeon threw five different ball-screen defenses at the Leopards. They were all for naught.

“They’re a great shooting team,” guard Nick Faust said. “I felt as though we contested most of them, but we’ll just have to get better in practice tomorrow.”

Of course, the Terps (3-1) helped the Leopards (1-4) at times. They tallied nine of their 12 turnovers in the second half, struggled to adjust to Lafayette’s zone and gave up plenty of open looks.

But after the game, Turgeon was more focused on the game’s positive takeaways than his team’s lapses. He called the season a “process,” and expressed confidence in his squad’s ability to become great.

The stat sheet gave plenty to support his outlook. The Terps continued to impress with their depth, finishing with five scorers in double figures. Center Alex Len added to a growing list of noteworthy outings with a team-high 16 points and eight rebounds. The ever-stoic James Padgett chipped in 14 points on 6-of-7 shooting, and freshman Charles Mitchell had a career-high 12 points.

But Len, Padgett and Mitchell didn’t leave Turgeon gushing after the Terps’ first single-digit win of the season. That was reserved for Faust, who followed up a 2-of-8 showing against LIU Brooklyn on Friday with a season-high 13 points and eight boards.

“He looked a lot better,” Wells said. “It was like he calmed down. He let the game come to him.”

Though the Terps led for the full 40 minutes, they were never able to completely pull away from the pesky Leopards. They went on a 25-7 run that lasted from the end of the first half and extended about five minutes into the second, but Lehigh responded with a plethora of threes.

The Leopards scored eight straight points out of a timeout with 14:41 remaining to cut the deficit to 54-43, and traded baskets with the Terps the rest of the way.

And though the Terps surely would’ve liked to cruise to their third blowout win in eight days, they weren’t overly concerned with the relatively thin margin of victory. Lafayette, after all, delivered an unreal performance from beyond the arc. 

“Give them credit,” Turgeon said. “Man, they were good. Last year, I don’t know if we could’ve come out with a win tonight.”

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