Maryland's defense falters as they fall 84-73 to No. 16 Michigan

(Photo courtesy of Maryland Athletics)

Coming off its biggest win of the young season, Maryland basketball couldn't continue the momentum going as they barbarous at home 84-73 to No. xvi Michigan on New Yr'due south Eve.

The Wolverines were led past freshman eye Hunter Dickinson, who scored a career-high 26 points and grabbed eleven rebounds, fresh off his third Big Ten Freshman of the Calendar week honor. The DMV native was 10-xi from the field and 6-7 from the gratuitous throw line.

Maryland caput charabanc Mark Turgeon called Dickinson "a human possessed" as the Terrapins failed to incorporate the freshman phenom throughout the game. Turgeon as well touched on the team'south defensive struggles down the stretch.

"We couldn't keep the brawl in front of usa," Turgeon said. "Our criminal offense was good plenty to win the game, [but] our defense force just wasn't skilful plenty."

Michigan came into the contest averaging 82 points per game confronting a stout Terrapin defense that held the No. vi Wisconsin Badgers to under 70 points. The Terrapins gave up over 80 points for the first fourth dimension since the 2017-2018 season.

On the other side of the ball, the Terps looked sluggish at the start, shooting 3-eleven to kickoff the game. They followed up a deadening kickoff offensively with a torrid shooting stretch to end the opening half, hitting 9 of eleven three pointers within the showtime 20 minutes of play.

The game'south turning point came midway through the first half when Senior Darryl Morsell left the game with a head injury subsequently taking a shot to the face by Michigan guard Franz Wagner.

Inferior guard Eric Ayala discussed the impact of Morsell's absence.

"He'south tremendous," Ayala said. "He tin baby-sit 1 through v, his physicality, his toughness, the way he impacts the game offensively and defensively. It was tough."

Turgeon did not take an firsthand update on Morsell, only mentioned he was en route to a nearby trauma center post-obit the game.

Things got chippy in the showtime half, with each team being issued two technical fouls and one coming from Dickinson following a staredown of the Terrapin bench. Turgeon described Thursday night's boxing equally "emotional game," but this game meant something more to Dickinson. Dickinson told reporters earlier this week he felt slighted when Maryland did not make much of an effort to recruit him.

Michigan led 46-44 at the break, with Terps forrard Donta Scott catching fire from deep, connecting on all iv of his attempts. He led all scorers at the one-half with xiv points. Scott and Jairus Hamilton combined for 25 of the team'due south 44 points in the beginning half.

On the visitor's side, Dickinson scored xi points while shooting iv-4 from the field within the first xx minutes of play, while Wagner chipped in with ten points. Each squad shot simply over 50% in the opening half.

The 2nd half started as a back-and-forth affair, every bit there were 5 atomic number 82 changes in as many minutes to open up the one-half. However, the game slipped away from the Terps as Michigan jumped out to a double-digit atomic number 82 midway through the half with a 15-0 run, capped off by a two-handed jam by Dickinson. The dominating stretch was part of a 22-four run by the Wolverines which lasted virtually of the second half.

After putting on a dispensary from beyond the arc in the offset half, Maryland went cold from 3 coming out of the pause, going 2-viii to commencement the second one-half.

Dickinson connected to dominate the paint in the game's final 20 minutes, scoring fifteen points while grabbing 8 rebounds. Ultimately, the Terrapins' disability to come up upward with stops on the defensive cease coupled with its failure to get to the free throw line led to the high-scoring defeat.

"We didn't get to the foul line," Turgeon said. "They shot 16 free throws in the first half and we ended up shooting half dozen for the game."

Beingness sloppy with the ball didn't assistance the Terps either. After committing under x turnovers in each of their previous iv games, the Terps had 12 against Michigan.

Wagner finished with xix points, including three triples, after struggling from 3 much of this flavor. Graduate transfer Mike Smith scored 16, along with half-dozen rebounds and 6 assists.

Scott led all Maryland scorers with xix and hit all five of his three point attempts. Ayala had xvi points while Hamilton contributed with 15.

The Terps become back to action on Mon as they travel to Bloomington to take on the Indiana Hoosiers at 8:00PM on BTN. 5 of their next seven games are confronting ranked opponents, just that'south just life in the Big 10 conference.

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Source: http://wmucsports.net/marylands-defense-falters-as-they-fall-84-70-to-no-16-michigan/

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