UNCASVILLE, Conn. — Maryland’s good begin continued Saturday with a 95-67 romp over Saint Louis in a semifinal sport of the Basketball Corridor of Fame Tip-Off Event at Mohegan Solar Area.
Maryland
Maryland basketball stays unbeaten by routing Saint Louis
“I assumed if we might outrebound them we’d have a terrific probability of profitable as a result of they’d actually dominated the glass of their first three video games and actually harm Memphis on second pictures,” Willard mentioned. “The most important factor for us was if we might get rebounds we might get out in transition. I feel our transition offense is getting higher.
“I assumed we did a very good job on the boards.”
Because of the Terps’ means to outrebound Saint Louis and kick their transition offense into gear, they scored 14 fast-break factors in contrast with six for the Billikens.
Senior ahead Donta Scott led a quintet of Terps in double figures with a game-high 25 factors. He was adopted by Donald Carey (16), Hakim Hart (16), Ian Martinez (14) and Jahmir Younger (11). It was the primary time since Jan. 3 that 5 Maryland gamers had double-digit factors in the identical sport.
Javonte Perkins led Saint Louis with 17 factors whereas Yuri Collins added 12.
“Day-after-day I put within the work so ultimately these pictures will fall,” Scott mentioned of his means to torch Saint Louis.
The Terps additionally shot a commendable 40.6 p.c (13-32) from past the arc. Coming into Saturday’s sport Maryland was taking pictures 25.4 p.c on three-pointers.
“Coach Willard actually emphasizes the inside-out threes,” Scott mentioned. “We penetrate into the paint after which kick it out to teammates. That’s an enormous a part of our sport.”
The sport was tied 2-2 lower than two minutes into the primary half. After that, the Terps grabbed the Billikens by their collective throats and by no means let go, main for the ultimate 38 minutes.
Maryland was forward 22-17 when it went on a 10-0 run sparked by 4 factors by Hart.
The Terps closed out the half with a 13-4 run due largely to three-point pictures by Hart, Scott and Carey. When the buzzer sounded, the Terps had a 51-27 lead.
One more reason for the Terps’ 24-point halftime benefit was the very fact they held the Billikens to 25 p.c taking pictures (8-32) whereas Maryland shot a commendable 51.4 p.c (19-37).
The second half was a traditional model of rubbish time.
With Scott scoring seven factors within the first 4:33, the Terps constructed a 62-38 lead. Martinez scored 10 of his factors within the second half as Maryland’s lead ballooned to as many as 32 factors.
“Everyone is able to push us and make us higher,” Scott mentioned. “We simply have to indicate it and now we’ve proven it.”
Willard, who’s in his first season because the Terps head coach, with out query is having fun with the journey.
“This staff’s been a blast to educate,” he mentioned. “Everybody of them has a bit little bit of a chip on their shoulder, from the transfers to the fellows that stayed for me. I feel all people is actually locked in. We’re working exhausting. It’s a terrific group. They’re unselfish. They’re nice youngsters. What you see on the court docket is a results of their exhausting work.”
Willard is the primary Maryland males’s basketball coach to start out 4-0. Even Lefty Driesell and Gary Williams had been unable to get off to quicker begins. Driesell was 2-2 to start out in 1969-70 and Williams was 3-1 to open the 1989-90 season.
Scott tied his profession excessive in factors and reached double figures for the forty eighth time in his profession.
Carey, a switch from Georgetown, joined him by notching double figures for the 69th time whereas Hart did so for the twenty eighth time.
Scott now has 986 profession factors and 519 rebounds. He’s seeking to develop into the seventeenth Terp since 1995 to succeed in the 1,000-point plateau and 500-rebound milestone.