Welcome to The Diamondback Sports Digest. Every week, we send you a rundown of the latest Maryland athletic news.
Maryland football’s season is effectively over. Its newest loss ended bowl game hopes and continued what’s been the Terps’ worst campaign since coach Michael Locksley’s first season at the helm.
In this week’s newsletter, we’ll break down football’s defeat, men’s soccer’s NCAA tournament matches and men’s basketball’s response to an early season loss.
Football flounders on senior day
Maryland football needed to win its final two regular season games to secure bowl eligibility, starting with Iowa on Saturday. Instead, the Terps struggled from the opening kickoff and fell, 29-13.
Maryland’s offense endured its worst outing of the season through the air and took about 39 minutes to find its first score.
Both redshirt junior Billy Edwards Jr. and redshirt sophomore MJ Morris played at quarterback. Edwards, using a glove on his throwing hand, started but left after two drives to get treatment. He returned for the second half but exited for good after taking a massive hit on a scramble.
Morris only completed 52.2 percent of his passes and threw interceptions on back to back drives in the fourth quarter.
The Terps end their season next weekend at No. 4 Penn State.
Men’s soccer’s season comes to an end
Maryland men’s soccer entered the NCAA tournament on a four game losing streak, including a 6-0 loss to UCLA that marked its worst defensive performance since 1993.
The Terps were on the verge of a fifth straight defeat on Thursday, trailing Long Island 2-1 early in the second half, which would’ve ended their season. But their offense then exploded en route to a 5-2 win.
The victory advanced Maryland into the second round of the tournament, where it lost to No. 8-seed Wake Forest, 2-1.
Wake Forest’s Cooper Flax found the bottom right of the cage for the winning goal in the 63rd minute after graduate student Max Rogers’ score before halftime. While Maryland returned to the tournament, it struggled late in the year and ended its season in the second round.
Men’s basketball gets back on track
Maryland men’s basketball responded after its four-point loss to No. 15 Marquette on Nov. 15 with a dominant 108-37 win against Canisius. A starting lineup change that coach Kevin Willard made ahead of that game — swapping sophomore guards Rodney Rice and DeShawn Harris-Smith — remained against Villanova.
The decision benefited the Terps on Sunday. Rice poured 16 points to help narrowly top the Wildcats, 76-75.
After trailing by 12 at halftime, Maryland chipped away at its deficit before taking a 57-55 advantage with just less than nine minutes left. The lead went back and forth after that.
Two free throws from freshman center Derik Queen pushed the Terps ahead with 19 seconds left, and Villanova missed a pair of 3-pointers on its final possession as Maryland secured its first high-major win.
Best Bits
Maryland women’s basketball’s scout team imitates the play styles of the Terps’ opponents to help them train before games.
- Tai Felton’s incredible senior season has him near the top of Maryland football’s career receiving records.
- Maryland volleyball freshman Katie Scherer has excelled in an impactful role after a teammate’s season-ending injury.
- Maryland wrestling has gotten off to a strong start this season behind the offseason weight class changes of four wrestlers.
- No. 11 Maryland women’s basketball dominated St. Francis on Sunday, 107-35, to remain undefeated this season.
Stat of the week
Maryland men’s basketball’s 71-point throttling of Canisius was the program’s largest win since 1998.
Quote of the week
“Sometimes KenPom’s full of shit,” men’s basketball coach Kevin Willard said about Maryland playing many teams outside the rating methodology’s top-300 teams.
