Nine years of waiting for fans came to fruition Friday night as Maryland men’s basketball and Georgetown faced off in a highly anticipated matchup, igniting an old rivalry between the two DMV schools.
When the Terps and Hoyas meet, fans can always expect a classic. Maryland’s home gold rush crowd was expecting no difference, as they were rowdy from wire to wire.
But the crowd couldn’t help the Terps, as they never led in their 70-60 loss at Xfinity Center.
“The environment was incredible. The student section, the genre of people that were here,” Maryland coach Buzz Williams said. “We’re grateful. I just didn’t think that from start to finish, we competed with the edge that you have to have.”
Two rival schools that hadn’t played each other in nine years brought an evident aggression to the game. “You’re gonna have to have a hard hat and a hammer in the hand when you play against them,” Georgetown coach Ed Cooley said on the CBS College Basketball podcast with John Rothstein this week.
The Hoyas played into that style, preventing Maryland from ever holding a lead. The deficit reached as many as 20 points early in the second half. But Myles Rice showed no rust in his first game back from injury, and the Terps stayed within reach.
The redshirt junior scored 19 points and played his best in the second half. He put the crowd on their feet with a steal for an easy two, and answered right back with another tough bucket inside to get within seven points.
“We need miles to play,” Williams said. “His speed changes our team, whether we’re trying to play fast or not.”
He kept the Terps in the game with his play and brought life to the crowd, with a scuffle with a familiar face to Maryland fans — DeShawn Harris-Smith, who transferred to Georgetown.
The junior was booed every time he touched the ball, and his performance on Friday warranted the boos from the crowd — as it was similar to what they saw in his two seasons in College Park. He scored just three points and even earned a technical foul — a delight to Terps’ fans — in a scuffle with Rice.
The Terps used the energy from the rejuvenated crowd to chip away at their deficit, but the hole was too deep to dig out of.
The closest they got was five points at halftime — and could have easily been more. The physicality was evident from the opening tip, as both teams struggled from the field. Maryland’s offensive issues were more apparent from the tip. They fell behind 11-0 quickly due to sloppy play on both offense and defense. Ugly turnovers, fouls, missed shots, and second-chance opportunities gave the Hoyas early momentum.
The Terps shot just 5-of-22 from the field and 2-of-13 from deep, but cashed in on the Hoyas’ aggressive style, knocking down 15-of-18 free throws.
“If you look at our shot diet, all of it would be good,” Williams said. “42% of our shots, we had five toes in the chart circle; we made 33%. You’re not going to win a game when you make 33% of your layups.”
“We got fouled and we made 80% of our free throws … we’re going to have to shoot a lot of free throws.”
Williams mentioned after Monday’s win that the three-point volume would likely decrease, and Friday was evidence of why. The Terps missed their first nine threes and shot 4-of-21 (19%) for the game.
Georgetown’s shooting struggles of its own kept Maryland in reach, as it failed to make a field goal in the final eight minutes of the opening half, and shot 10-of-25 from the field.
Malik Mack instantly changed that out of the halftime locker room. The junior guard erupted for eight quick points, highlighted by back-to-back threes after they missed all eight first-half attempts.
Mack’s hot hand was contagious, as an 18-3 Hoyas run stretched their lead to 20 with 12 minutes to play.
The Terps got within seven points with under five minutes to play, but couldn’t get closer, eventually conceding by ten points for their first loss of the season.
“There’s a lot of mistakes that we made, and a lot of great plays that we made,” Diggy Coit said. We’re going to just look ourselves in the mirror and take it one step at a time.”
