With Pharrel Payne missing his seventh straight game, Maryland men’s basketball’s chance at its first Big Ten win could come one way — on the back of Diggy Coit.
The graduate guard erupted for 43 points — 30 came in the first half alone as he outscored Penn State by himself — coming one point shy of the Maryland program record for points scored and tied the record threes made in a game with nine.
Maryland put together its best offensive performance of the season, completely outclassing Penn State 96-73 at Xfinity Center for its first Big Ten win.
“[I] felt hot going into the game,” Coit said. “I felt the momentum from the team, and seeing a couple shots go in, they [were] telling me ‘they can’t guard you, be aggressive’. My team always gives me that confidence.”
After scoring 41 points against Mount Saint Mary’s, it seemed like that would be his moment. Inconsistency has been the story of Coit’s season. While he has scored 30-plus points four times, he has scored ten or less eight times — including a zero-point outing against Old Dominion.
But just two months later, he topped that performance.
Maryland’s return home ignited Coit again, setting the Xfinity Center record for points in a game for the second time this season. He needed only 23 shots to score 43 points, making 14 of them and shooting 9-of-15 (60%) from three-point range.
“He has video game tendencies,” head coach Buzz Williams said about Coit. “He can gain space, and his ability to make shots, particularly off the dribble, is rare. We needed what he did today.”
For a Maryland (8-10, 1-6 Big Ten) team that came in ranked near the bottom of the Big Ten in many statistical categories, a performance like Sunday is huge for morale against a Penn State (9-9, 0-7 Big Ten) team in a similar spot. The Terps allowed 78.1 points per game — the most in the Big Ten prior to the win, and were third to last in points per game at 73.2. Maryland improved on both of those totals in the win.
From the opening tip, the Terps’ offense was on fire. Despite Williams opting for another lineup change, inserting redshirt freshman George Turkson Jr. for Solomon Washington, Maryland didn’t skip a beat.
Penn State’s offense matched the Terps early on, but failed to maintain it. Coit continued to pick his spots en route to a 20-1 Maryland run to end the half, as the Terps went to halftime up by 30. Its 56 points were the most in a first half in a regular-season game since joining the conference.
Mingo has arguably been Penn State’s best player this season and returned to play after missing three games to injury. He led the team in points, assists and steals. But three fouls put him on the bench for a long stretch in the opening half as Penn State’s offense grew stagnant.
The game looked over, but Penn State made things interesting with freshman guard Kayden Mingo back on the floor. Mingo’s presence helped the Nittany Lions go on a 20-1 run of their own to cut the deficit to just 10 points at the 11:33 mark. Coit was completely shut down and only attempted one shot in the stretch, as Maryland didn’t make a field goal for over six minutes.
The Nittany Lions’ offense still couldn’t miss, but the Terps found their spark. Andre Mills stopped the bleeding with five consecutive points, while the defense forced multiple turnovers, leading to points on the other end as the lead eventually ballooned to over 20 points again.
The Terps spent much of the remaining game time trying to get Coit the program record, but he came two points short of breaking it in the biggest Maryland win of the season.
“I really admire the resilience of our group and I’m grateful for the creativity of our coaches,” Williams said. “We’ve got to continue to build confidence in applying that through the process. A lot of that hopefully can transpire as the next 13 games unfold.”
