Maryland Basketball: Terrapins win convincingly over Indiana Hoosiers

Maryland basketball and turnovers were friends, not enemies as the 15th ranked Terps cruised to victory against Indiana.

Maryland basketball and the Indiana Hoosiers were primed and ready for an early-season Big Ten battle. The Terps were going to have a loud Xfinity Center crowd behind them which is always an advantage.

Maryland came into this game after beating the Bryant Bulldogs by 14 points. The Terps saw what could be with Chol Marial on the floor. Providing put-back dunk after put-back dunk, he stood tall in the paint and presented challenges for the Bulldogs.

Would he be a factor in this game? How long would he be out on the floor?

On the Hoosiers end, they come into this game, winning three out of their last four. Led by Trayce Jackson-Davis (15.4 PPG, 8.7 RPG), Devonte Green (12.5 PPG), Justin Smith (12.2 PPG, 5.5 RPG) and Al Durham (11.4 PPG).

Jackson-Davis is the second-best player in the Big Ten in field goal percentage with a 66. An interesting thing to watch out for was going to be which team did a better job on the boards and scoring in the paint. Neither team shoots the ball at a high percentage from three in the conference.

The big men for each side got the scoring started as Jalen Smith and Joey Brunk for Indiana got shots to go down from inside.

Marial entered the game under 15 minutes to go in the first half much to the crowd’s delight. After getting a foul called on him early, his presence allowed for a Ricky Lindo Jr. blocked shot. Smith hit back-to-back three-point shots to cut the Hoosiers lead to two, 16-14. Solid defense on the other end got the crowd excited.

Serrel Smith Jr. came into the game and gave the Terps the defensive boost they needed, and it resulted in a steal.

Aaron Wiggins tied the game with his dribble-drive layup and Darryl Morsell gave them their first lead of the game with free throws.

At the 5:45 mark, The Terps were capitalizing on six Hoosier turnovers with nine points. Morsell drove the lane for a dribble-drive of his own and gave the Terps a six-point, 22-16 lead. They scored 11 unanswered points.

Morsell and Smith led the Terps with a combined 17 points and Wiggins had four points and five rebounds under four minutes to go in the first half. The score was 24-18 Terps.

Later, a corner three from Wiggins gave them a 27-20 lead. The crowd almost erupted as he threw up a three-pointer as the shot clock expired but missed. They went into halftime up eight.

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Their defense was very impressive down the stretch in that half. When Indiana got the ball inside, the Terps got big and put their arms up to contest shots and crowd the ball handler.

They also held Jackson-Davis and Green to a combined five points.

They needed to keep that up.

In the second half, Wiggins got the crowd hyped with a one-handed slam. This came after Indiana’s Justin Smith turned the ball over. The Terps had a 33-22 lead coming out of a Hoosier timeout.

Indiana cut the Terps lead to 36-33 after two straight Brunk baskets. Indiana was knocking on the door and using the post to do it.

Maryland basketball continued to capitalize on Indiana’s miscues as a Cowan Jr. steal and an Eric Ayala bucket in transition pushed the Terps lead back up to nine. They had 15 points off turnovers.

The Terps did a good job of utilizing their midrange game and the post since shots behind the three-point line came few and far between.

Marial received loud cheers after a block. Anthony Cowan Jr. made a step back three-pointer prior to that.

A Wiggins steal and Donta Scott transition slam gave the Terps a 15 point lead, 53-38 under nine minutes to go in the game. At this point, the Hoosiers had 11 turnovers.

The Terps scored 11 unanswered points for the second time in this game, pushing their lead to 57-38. Jalen Smith was very productive. He had 13 points, five rebounds and a block. Wiggins had 13 points and eight rebounds also.

Maryland basketball ran away with this game. They had a 28 point lead, 69-41, after made baskets from Cowan Jr., Morsell, and Smith. Under four minutes to go, the game was over.

They capitalized on turnovers instead of hurting themselves. That was the key for them in this win. The final score was 75-59. Smith finished with 19 points and eight rebounds. Morsell and Cowan Jr. and Wiggins combined for 38 points and 17 rebounds.

Next. 5 Big Ten questions for rest of season. dark

Devonte Green was Indiana’s lone double-figure scorer with 18 points. The Hoosiers drop to 11-3 (1-2 Big Ten) on the season and they go home to play Northwestern Wednesday.

This was a solid win for the Terps at home as they have Ohio State coming to town on Tuesday. The Buckeyes will have extra motivation to leave College Park with a victory after losing to Wisconsin on Friday.

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