Coach Mark Turgeon talks to guard Dez Wells during the Terps’ 78-77 loss to No. 18 UConn at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y., on Nov. 8, 2013.

Seth Allen leaned his crutches against the back of his chair and took a seat on the Terrapins men’s basketball bench before the start of Wednesday’s home opener against Abilene Christian. With a broken foot, that seat was where the Terps’ projected starting point guard would spend the duration of the night.

But there’s little chance Allen predicted the company he’d have on the bench for the final 14:35 of the first half.

Coach Mark Turgeon sent guard Dez Wells, the Terps’ leading scorer last season, to the bench after the two had a miscommunication early on, and Wells plopped into the seat directly to Allen’s right.

Wells remained there for the rest of half, and the Terps fell behind by as many as 11 points while their unquestioned leader was on the sideline. Wells returned in the second half and helped the Terps end the game on a 29-0 run to down the overmatched Wildcats, 67-44, but Turgeon made a clear point to one of his most important players.

“There was something I didn’t like,” Turgeon said. “This early in the season you got to set rules.”

Turgeon maintains that he and Wells have a “great relationship” and that the junior responded properly to his benching. It’s unclear exactly what the miscommunication between Turgeon and Wells was, though.

Wells did throw one errant pass in the first half and lost control of a rebound on the play before he was subbed out for guard Varun Ram. Turgeon also mentioned in his postgame news conference that he was frustrated early in the game because perimeter players weren’t feeding the ball into the post.

Whatever the disconnect was, Turgeon believed it was serious enough to keep a preseason Wooden Award Top-50 player on the bench for more than 15 minutes.

“He had a couple sloppy turnovers early,” Turgeon said. “He really wasn’t into it.”

The Terps struggled mightily in the first half. They committed 12 turnovers in the opening 20 minutes, and the Wildcats drained six threes to take a one-point lead into halftime.

When Wells finally checked back into the game with 18:37 left in the second half, teammates noticed he was more energized and helped the team improve its perimeter defense.

“He was vocal, he was loud, he was being our leader,” forward Charles Mitchell said. “He was controlling the pace of the game.”

The Terps also called on Wells to settle an offense that struggled to find rhythm in the first half. Wells replaced Allen as the team’s starting point guard in the opener, and though freshman Roddy Peters started at the position against Abilene Christian, Wells got his teammates open on the outside with penetration to the lane several times in the second half.

Forward Jake Layman, who had a team-high 19 points, hit two threes in the second half off assists from Wells after a sluggish first half.

“We did kind of lack some leadership in that first half with Dez being out,” Layman said. “No one really took control of our offense.”

Wells’ value on the floor is obvious, and the team clearly struggled without him. But the Terps insist his benching won’t have a negative impact moving forward.

Turgeon claims Wells understood the message, and both Layman and Mitchell voiced support for his decision.

“We always going to respect our coach’s decisions because he is a great coach,” Mitchell said. “He is a winning coach. We want to win.”

Mitchell said Wells’ status as the team’s leader remains cemented despite his 15-minute stint on the bench. And Turgeon hopes Wells won’t spend much time beside Allen on game day until the sophomore point guard is back in the lineup come January.

“He got the message,” Turgeon said. “He had it right away. He’s a great kid.”