Julian Reese made quick trips to and from the bench during Maryland men’s basketball’s loss against Michigan State.
He picked up two fouls within the first three minutes and was subbed out early. Another infraction with about seven minutes to go in the first half saw him head back to the bench until halftime.
Reese returned to the court after the break for just seven seconds before promptly committing his fourth foul of the day.
The junior never picked up the fifth infraction that would’ve ended his game, but foul trouble limited him to a season-low 14 minutes as the Terps’ offense struggled in a nine-point defeat.
“The fouls on [Reese] really changed the game,” coach Kevin Willard said.
Behind leading scorer Jahmir Young, Willard’s team has leaned on Reese. The 6-foot-9 junior is listed as a forward but is deployed as Maryland’s center and averages 13.1 points per game — the second-highest mark on a Terps team that needs scoring.
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Maryland averages the second-fewest points per game in the Big Ten. With Reese on the sideline for a majority of Saturday’s game, the Terps struggled to get anything going offensively aside from another monster performance from Young.
The Charlotte transfer dropped 31 points against the Spartans and scored 19 of Maryland’s 27 second-half points — no other Terp scored more than two in the frame.
With spotty offensive help from his supporting cast, Young’s average of 29 points per contest in the Terps’ last six away games hasn’t always led the Terps to important wins.
Maryland is 3-3 in those contests, with Reese chipping in 20- and 17-point performances in wins over Illinois and Iowa but scoring below his season average in a 10-point outing in a loss at Northwestern and, on Saturday, just two points.
Reese is averaging 15.9 points in Maryland’s wins and just nine in losses. With him on the bench for a majority of Saturday’s contest, Maryland had few other places to turn. The Terps’ bench averages just 8.8 points per game against high-major opponents this season. Willard relies heavily on his starters — Maryland ranks 308th in the country in bench minutes.
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“We haven’t practiced a whole lot with Jordan [Geronimo] at the five spot,” Willard said. “We just got really stagnant on the offensive end because a lot of the stuff that we could do with [Reese], we couldn’t do.”
Backup center Caelum Swanton-Rodger subbed in for Reese early, but totaled just eight minutes and didn’t score. Maryland was outscored by 12 in his minutes. Geronimo finished with six points and six rebounds as a small-ball five.
Maryland’s strong defense kept the Terps’ struggling offense in the game until late in the second half when fatigue set in.
Spartans forward Malik Hall scored 19 points, 12 of which came in the final seven minutes of the game to help the Spartans pull away from the Terps — who squandered another huge night from Jahmir Young with a disappointing showing from Reese and the rest of the offense.
