LAS VEGAS — Entering this week’s Players Era Festival, Buzz Williams said he wouldn’t have a voice by Wednesday — the likely third day of Maryland men’s basketball’s tournament slate.

He was hoarse just seconds after tipoff in the Terps’ Monday night opener against UNLV.

Williams, sporting bright red sweatpants and a black and white Under Armour quarter zip, skated across the sideline in fury. The Terps’ coach watched his team commit 10 turnovers in the game’s first 12 minutes — a wildly chaotic stretch of offense.

The Terps’ 20 total giveaways were their most in a game since Jan. 5, 2023 against Rutgers.

“We were discombobulated, which is what they wanted,” Williams said. “We made incredibly poor decisions, and we could never get in a rhythm.”

Maryland ended the first half with 15 turnovers, 10 fouls and just 11 made field goals in a disastrous period. But Williams’ team flipped the script, outscoring the Rebels by 10 after the break en route to a 74-67 win at Grand Garden Arena.

“The solution — or somewhat of the solution — was we just tried to simplify,” Williams said. “No matter what they were doing, we were going to do the same thing, and we found some continuity in that. But very lucky, considering how high our turnover rate was, to have a chance to win.”

[Buzz Williams’ sideline energy leads Maryland men’s basketball]

The Rebels made just three of their first 18 field goals and went nearly five minutes without a made shot midway through the opening period. Maryland only led 16-15 at that point, largely because of its own offensive struggles.

UNLV ranks 12th in the country in adjusted tempo and generates over 74 possessions per contest, according to KenPom. The Rebels used their speed early, forcing the Terps into rushed looks in the halfcourt.

Following Maryland’s overtime win over Mount St. Mary’s last Wednesday, Williams said Virginia transfer Elijah Saunders played 20 minutes out of position. He challenged Saunders to “do more.”

Midway through the first half, Maryland committed three turnovers in three consecutive offensive possessions. An offensive 3-second violation by Saunders capped the stretch of errors.

The 6-foot-8 forward logged just two points before fouling out. His minutes went to freshman forward Aleks Alston, who excelled off the bench.

Alston was the Terps’ lone source of consistent first-half offense. All of his six points came in the first frame — eclipsing the five points he combined for across his first four games.

[Yarden Garzon broke through in Maryland women’s basketball’s win over George Mason]

“We need him to have a role on our team,” Williams said. “I do think through extra film and extra reps, he wants to learn and he’s making some progress. In the first half, he may have been the best player on the floor for us.”

Through Maryland’s first five games, just 11 percent of its total shots were corner threes. Freshman guard Darius Adams shot just 1-for-5 on those shots entering Monday. But UNLV practically begged Maryland to swing the ball to the weakside corner — Adams ended up shooting nine 3-pointers, while the Terps as a whole shot 31.

Nine days ago against Marquette, Pharrel Payne committed three fouls before exiting after a scary fall. Maryland’s star big man recorded an additional three fouls on Monday night in his first game back from injury.

But offensively, Payne provided paint production for a Terps offense desperately seeking it. The senior forward poured in 16 second-half points, part of an eventual 20-point, six-rebound effort.

Entering Monday, the Terps’ five-man lineup of Payne, Coit, Adams, Andre Mills and Myles Rice hadn’t played a single minute together. Down by as many as seven points down the stretch, Williams experimented — and the lineup delivered.

Bolstered by fill-in bench minutes from Isaiah Watts, the group held UNLV scoreless across a pivotal four-minute stretch. The Rebels converted just four of their final 11 field goal attempts.