In the opening minutes and throughout the first half, the Terrapin men’s basketball team made uncharacteristic mistakes, lapsing on defense and committing silly turnovers. There were even a couple of airballs sprinkled in for good measure.

All it took for that sluggish play to disappear was for the Terps to see their senior leader lying face down on the baseline.

After Fordham’s Marcus Stout clotheslined senior guard D.J. Strawberry on a fast break in the second half and was whistled for an intentional foul, the Terps ramped up their intensity and rattled off seven straight points. Galvanized by the foul, the Terps put Fordham away, winning 79-59 last night at Comcast Center.

“You gotta shake it off, and you just gotta take it to them on the court. We just took it to them,” Strawberry said. “We don’t wanna see anybody go down. When stuff like that happens, we just come together and we play harder.”

Even though Stout’s hit did not draw blood, the Terps ramped up their collective game after the play. Fans contributed to the emotional ante, booing Stout every time he touched the ball after that point. But the Terps weren’t likely to forget the play anyway.

“We’re playing in our house,” freshman guard Greivis Vasquez said. “We don’t want to let anybody do that.”

Before the intentional foul and a 14-4 second-half run, the Terps (9-1) struggled to adjust to Fordham’s defense. They also committed 25 turnovers and let the Rams (4-3) remain in the game.

Pointing to different things Fordham did on defense, Williams said the game showed that the Terps have to stick to their offense to succeed.

“You have to have a game like this to understand that you have to depend on your execution because you can’t change everything for each defense they play,” Williams said.

While the Terps couldn’t pull away early, they got a boost from shot blocking and blazing hot shooting. Senior forward Ekene Ibekwe led the Terps’ inside defense with a career-high seven blocks. Williams said those blocks discouraged the Rams, who resorted to more jump shots and finished the game shooting less than 33 percent from the field.

On the offensive end of the court, it was senior guard Mike Jones who rebounded from an 0-for-5 night against Notre Dame to carry the Terps early and keep them on top late. Jones drilled all four of his three-point attempts, finishing with 18 points.

“He can shoot. We just need him to shoot, that’s it,” Vasquez said. “Whenever he hits a three, everybody’s gonna get fired up.”

And as the Terps went into bouts of turnovers and misplayed defense, they were able to start clicking after halftime. After getting only one more board than Fordham in the first half, the Terps jumped out to a 22-9 rebounding advantage in the second half.

Along with technique, the Terps showed more intensity after the break and after Stout’s foul on Strawberry. That play quickly made a non-conference game into an emotional affair.

Following that play, Williams said the Terps responded by concentrating on the game and not letting anything get out of control. Instead, the Terps controlled the tempo and got the kind of payback that mattered.

“We’ll just pound ’em by 20 and walk off the court. It feels better to win by 20 than to get a technical foul in that situation for me going after him,” Strawberry said. “I’d rather have the win any day.”

Contact reporter Stephen Whyno at whynodbk@gmail.com.