In Buzz Williams’ long awaited return to Marquette after leaving in 2014, the game belonged to Pharell Payne — for his dominance, then a moment that silenced the crowd.
The senior scored 16 points and was perfect from the field as the heartbeat for Maryland. But at the 12:14 mark in the second half, Payne landed awkwardly after a dunk and had to be stretchered off the floor.
In the shock of his absence, Maryland rallied in his absence, to defeat Marquette 89-82, closing out an emotional win.
“I was a little caught off guard. He’s our best player that’s well received within our program,” Williams said. “When I got back to the huddle, I didn’t talk about ball. We just prayed for him. Not their execution, but their response was great growth for our program.”
Williams was seen with tears in his eyes after the team huddle, as players’ faces looked stunned. The emotion translated into a dominant finish, as Maryland (3-1) played for Payne.
Despite playing without two guys expected to be starters in Myles Rice and Solomon Washington, and losing Payne, Williams, and the Terps delivered a statement win.
For Williams, it meant more. He spent six seasons at Marquette (3-2) from 2008 to 2014 in his first power-conference head-coaching job, and credits the program for where he is today.
“Milwaukee. Marquette. It changed my life,” Williams said. “I wasn’t deserving of the job at all, and because of many people that were willing to hire someone that didn’t deserve the job and completely changed my family’s life. And so I have nothing but great things in every possible way.”
Williams’ departure from Marquette in 2014 after six seasons was the first sign of a trend that he has followed since. The head coach doesn’t stay in one place for too long.
Now at Maryland, his third stop since, Williams faced his former team for the first time Saturday since leaving 11 years ago.
It was a dream start for the Terps. Maryland’s offense clicked in the first half better than they had all season. They shot 59 percent from the field, and exceeded their first half total from the loss against Georgetown at the 10:25 mark.
The Terps offense put together its best performance of the season, as several players stepped up. Graduate Diggy Coit led the way with 19 points and on 4-for-7 from three in his increased role with Myles Rice out again.
Isaiah Watts had his breakout performance. He scored 18 points on only six shots, and knocked down huge shots late. The junior had struggled to start the year, as he shot 14.3 percent from beyond the arc coming in, but didn’t let that affect his confidence.
In the final five minutes, he scored seven crucial points. He started with a putback on an Andre Mills miss as he was fouled, and followed up with a corner three to extend the lead to 12, and two free throws late to ice the game.
“I’m a shooter. I like to put the ball in the basket. I’m built to make shots, but what comes with that is missing shots,” Watts said on Friday. “So I’m okay with missing a bunch of shots and finding my rhythm.”
It wasn’t just the outside shooting, as Payne’s presence inside was the difference. He scored nine points in the paint, but the game completely flipped at the 8:58 mark when he picked up his second foul.
The Terps had a 13-point lead at that point, but made just one field goal as Payne sat the rest of the half. Marquette outscored the Terps 23-to-10 to tie the score heading into the break as it dominated the glass.
Williams acknowledged the Terps rebounding struggles on Friday, and the issues boiled up in the first half. Marquette outrebounded the Terps 23-to-11 in the first half as 12 offensive rebounds were the difference. It led to 17 second-chance points for the Eagles as they erased their deficit quickly.
“Rebounding takes an enormous amount of time. We are beyond bad at it, not just against Marquette,” Williams said. “We weren’t in the top 100 in defensive rebounding or offensive rebounding entering today’s game, and I would say we’re not in the top 200 after this contest.”
Offensive dysfunction was evident to open the second half. Williams harped that the Terps needed to lower their turnover rate on Friday, but that wasn’t the case. Coit gave it away twice, followed by a bad miscommunication to the dismay of Payne as he expressed his frustration with Elijah Saunders.
Maryland finally looked to be turning a corner as Payne finished dunk — then came the injury.
Despite the shock of their best player screaming on the floor in pain and leaving on a stretcher, the Terps rallied to close out a statement win for Payne and Williams.
