Maryland men’s basketball started Tuesday’s game against Alcorn State on a mission. The Terps — looking to bounce back after a disappointing loss to Georgetown in their home opener — needed a strong offensive showing.

Early on, Maryland did just that. With its repeated effort to get the ball in the paint, Maryland took control on the opening possession. 

While Alcorn State clawed its way back within striking distance, mostly due to Maryland’s offensive inabilities, the Terps started the second half strong. Maryland bolted out to an 11-1 run and never looked back. 

On a night in which they entered as 29.5-point favorites, the Terps needed a second-half surge to put away a scrappy squad. Maryland picked up head coach Buzz Williams’ first win at the Xfinity Center, 84-64.

“A credit to those guys. … We had four turkeys [three straight stops] in the first half. We had seven turkeys in the second half,” head coach Buzz Williams said. “I thought we did a better job in closing the game.”

The Terps jacked up 50 three-pointers across their first two contests — an unheard of clip given their struggles from behind the arc. Maryland entered with the third-worst three-point percentage in the Big Ten at 28 percent and fresh off a 4-for-21 showing on Friday against Georgetown.

Against a small lineup — Alcorn State didn’t have a player over 6-foot-8 amongst its starters — Maryland made it a point of emphasis to get Pharrel Payne touches down low. It immediately paid off. Darius Adams fed the ball to Payne on the inbounds play, and Payne muscled his way through the contact to give the Terps an early 2-0 lead.

Even when Maryland didn’t feed the fall to its big man, the backcourt still attacked the paint consistently. The Terps — who are 38th in the country at 31 free throws per game — have gotten a steady diet of points from the charity stripe.

Maryland got to the charity stripe 15 times in the opening half, racking in nine free throws. 

But while the Terps got to the line at an extremely high clip, turnovers limited their offensive production. Maryland committed 10 first-half turnovers, limiting it to just 28 shot attempts in the first half.

“I thought it was probably the highest number of assists we’ve had,” Williams said. “At some point, we’re going to have to play where we have more assists than turnovers. We’re not quite there yet.”

The Terps reverted to their offensive approach from the first two games late in the first half, launching nearly half of their shot attempts from behind the arc. Maryland only made two of them — Diggy Coit hit one five minutes into the game and Andre Mills splashed the other.

Behind their inability to make shots from three-point range and some sloppy ball handling, the Terps’ 19-point lead dwindled to six points. Alcorn State embarked on a 17-4 run to close out the first half, making it 33-26 at the break.

“I think we probably played 25 minutes the way we want to play,” Williams said. “I thought the first 10 minutes [was] a lot of what we want to accomplish on both ends of the floor. Then, it really drastically changed from an execution standpoint, a stamina standpoint.”

Payne paced Maryland with 14 first-half points, a byproduct of his physical mismatch in the paint.

But after not making a field goal in the final nine minutes of the first half, the Terps’ offense found their stroke out of the locker rooms. Elijah Saunders nailed four free throws and Payne snagged an offensive rebound for an easy second-chance look.

From there, Mills knocked down Maryland’s third triple and suddenly its lead grew to 17 points. Payne contributed six early points to put him over 20 points for the second time this season.

After getting bumped to the bench for the first time this season for Coit, Guillermo Del Pino had easily his best game of his young career. The true freshman logged just 16 total minutes across the first two games.

However, when Maryland needed him most, the Spanish guard delivered a pair of crucial buckets. Del Pino splashed a three-pointer and found open space off the dribble for five quick points in just a minute.

“This is his first couple months in the states so he’s made a lot of progress in just being comfortable in his space and in our space,” Mills said. “This is very new to him, the pace of play and who he’s playing. He’s never seen this before so I’m personally proud of him.”

Adams followed suit. Despite starting the game 0-for-8, the highly touted recruit poured in XX second-half points. He hit his first collegiate three-pointer and showed promise after consecutive poor shooting performances.

While Maryland began to make buckets, so did Alcorn State. Jameel Morris fueled the Braves’ offense despite not starting in the game. The junior guard was responsible for a team-high 19 points. Travis Roberts also contributed 14 points, 11 of which came in the second half.

Every time it seemed like the Terps had grown an insurmountable lead, Alcorn State went on a mini spurt to bring the deficit back to around 13 points. But Maryland finally put the game away and tapped into its reserve depth.