Maryland Basketball: Terrapins offense fails in loss to Seton Hall

No Myles Powell, no problem. The Seton Hall Pirates (7-4) blocked shots and forced turnovers in route to a much-needed home victory over Maryland basketball (10-2).

Despite being without their leading scorer Myles Powell and Sandro Mamukelashvili, the Pirates locked down defensively with a raucous Prudential Center crowd behind them. Every time, Maryland basketball made a run, the Pirates defensive intensity picked up.

Darryl Morsell got the Terps going with a fadeaway runner in the lane while Romaro Gill got the Pirates on the board on the next possession.

The Pirates went into the first TV timeout with a 7-4 lead after a nice sequence of ball movement led to a Quincy McKnight three-pointer.

Each team to this point in the game had been playing well defensively and shooting poorly from the three-point line. They made it a point to get out and run on one another, so the pace of play was rather quick.

The Pirates increased their lead to eight, 15-7, with 7:17 to go in the first half after Anthony Nelson’s dribble-drive layup. The Pirates were stifling any attempt Maryland basketball put up at the rim. The Pirates blocked eight shots and caused nine turnovers. The Pirates saw their lead grow to 13, 20-7 with 4:09 left until half time.

They only had one made basket and eight turnovers in the last 12 minutes. The lowest point total Maryland scored all season was 25 points against Illinois.

The Terps started to wake up and went on an 8-0 run to cut the Pirates lead to seven, 23-16. A Nelson running floater over Jalen Smith at the buzzer gave the Pirates a 27-18 halftime lead.

Nelson led the Pirates with seven points, two assists, and one steal. Gill had six points and a whopping five blocks, a career-high for him.

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Maryland basketball needed to get a handle on their scoring and get physical with Seton Hall. Attacking the defense and forcing the Pirates into foul trouble needed to be a priority in the second half. Being down by nine isn’t bad but it’s not good, especially for a top-10 team.

The Pirates brought the energy with their star players out of this game and it paid off big time.

After shooting at 24 percent from the field in the first half, The Terps needed to string together solid possessions to gain control of this game.

Both teams came out shooting 1-of-3 from the field in the second half but the Pirates scored seven unanswered points to increase their lead to 14, 34-20. Jared Rhoden scored the team’s last five points with mid-range and three-point jumpers.

Team defense and togetherness without star power is what fueled the Pirates in this game. They caused 17 turnovers and blocked 15 shots. McKnight finished with 17 points, eight rebounds, and six assists.

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The Pirates held firm late in this game to send the Terps home to College Park with a 52-48 loss. The Pirates handed the Terps their second straight loss this season and their second straight loss to this team. The Pirates got their first signature win over a ranked opponent this season and will now go onto play the Prairie View A&M Panthers Sunday, at 4:30 pm ET.

The Terps will play the Bryant Bulldogs at noon on the Big Ten Network Sunday as well.

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