The Maryland men’s basketball team has struggled to get out to quick starts this season. As a result, the Terps have come back from three double-digit deficits, and six of their first eight wins came by six points or less.
Coach Mark Turgeon hoped to solve that issue Wednesday night against Howard by moving the ball around the court from the start. Yet Maryland still struggled in the first half against the mid-major foe, throwing sloppy passes and missing 3-pointers instead of attacking the basket. The Bison led with five-and-a-half minutes remaining in the first half.
So Turgeon preached for his squad in timeouts and at halftime to play with more energy. The Terps then returned to playing with aggression, a style that’s powered Maryland’s late comebacks. With that approach, the Terps blew the game open in the second frame en route to a 79-56 victory over Howard at Xfinity Center.
“One of our keys was to play inside-out. Our guys weren’t doing it,” Turgeon said. “At halftime I had to yell. We got a lot better in the second half, which was good to see. We really shared the ball, our defense was good, our rebounding was good.”
Forward Michal Cekovsky led the Terps (9-1) by tying a career-high 16 points in his third career start, while guards Jaylen Brantley (14 points) and Melo Trimble (10 points) also scored in double figures. Howard guard Charles Williams led the Bison (1-6), who shot 43.8 percent from the three-point line, with 21 points.
Maryland set the pace from the start, jumping out to a 7-0 lead while pressing Howard full court. But after that sequence, the Terps made errant passes, committing five turnovers before the under-12 timeout. Turgeon noticed the Bison took control of the tempo.
The Terps have struggled to find a low-post scoring threat this season, and with forward Damonte Dodd sitting out Wednesday and at least the next two games with a sprained MCL, those problems worsened early on. Against Howard’s 2-3 zone, the Terps reverted to the three-point line, where they had shot 29.2 percent entering Wednesday. By the under-eight media timeout, Maryland was 4-for-14 from beyond the arc, a similar theme to the times the Terps have faltered this season. Maryland didn’t attempt its first free throw until the 7:25 mark.
“We weren’t really driving as much the first half,” Brantley said. “We were penetrating the gaps the second half. Playing with [Cekovsky] … really gave them trouble. They were finding us for open shots.”
With about eight minutes to play, Howard gained its first lead. Turgeon said he wanted to give Trimble more rest in non-conference play, but with the Terps’ control in jeopardy, the sixth-year coach reinserted his star.
Maryland then attacked the basket more, attempting one three-pointer the remainder of the frame, and got Cekovsky more looks. That physicality gave the Terps a 38-31 halftime lead. In the locker room, Turgeon called upon his team to bring more intensity and continue to feed possessions into the paint.
“We knew if we got the ball down low, they were going to crash down and we could get wide open shots,” guard Kevin Huerter said. “We just started to play harder, and we started to look for [Cekovsky] more.”
The Terps continued the offensive pressure out of the break to score 23 points in the opening 10 minutes. By playing inside-out, which Turgeon said is his team’s most effective style, Maryland found more open looks. The Terps recorded a season-high 20 assists, and they finished shooting 40 percent on three-pointers.
While Maryland’s second half showed improvement, Turgeon said Tuesday he doesn’t want to wait until the second frame to pull away.
“We talked about having our guys play harder, play with more energy and act like you love basketball,” Turgeon said. “We did that in the second half.”
