Maryland men’s basketball fell to Georgetown, 70-60, in its annual gold rush game and home opener. 

The Terps never led on Friday and early struggles plagued them throughout.

Here are three takeaways from Maryland’s first loss of the season.

Poor shooting plagued the Terps.

Maryland had a tough night shooting the ball in every aspect except for free throws. 

The Terps had difficulty shooting from everywhere except from the free-throw line. Maryland shot well from the free-throw line, shooting 30-of-37, but free throws can’t be the primary method of scoring.

“We make 30 free throws statistically speaking, if that’s the only stat you knew, you would think that it would be a really close game, if not a win — 50% of our points came from the free throw line,” head coach Buzz Williams said.

 Maryland was 13-of-52 (25%) from the field and 4-of-21 (19%)  from deep, its only effective strategy was drawing fouls and getting to the line. 

Early on, the Terps took too many 3-point shots, allowing the Hoyas to build an early lead and they couldn’t make enough shots to offset the early shooting struggles.

“But other than free throws, we just didn’t shoot them at a high percentage, and so Georgetown can play at all times defense, except when we’re shooting free throws,” Williams said.

Maryland made 13 shots, it even struggled on layups — shooting 6-of-22. Four 3-pointers, six layups, three mid-range shots and 39 misses. It’s hard to win a game, shooting that poorly from the field. 

Myles Rice was Maryland’s best shooter, shooting 4-of-9 from the field and making 1-of-2 from deep. That said, he made all 10 of his free throws. He played really well, just Maryland’s offensive execution was off.

The Terps took many bad shots, David ‘Diggy’ Coit was 3-of-13 from the field and 2-of-9 from deep. Coit forced a lot of shots and they didn’t go in.

Early half execution put Maryland in too deep of a hole.

Maryland lost Thursday’s game within the first four minutes of each half. 

“How we started both halves was bad. I would say the environment got to us a little bit,” Coit said. “Not getting in our offense, getting good shots that we wanted.”

In the first four minutes of each half, the Hoyas outscored Maryland, 23-6. The Terps were susceptible to turnovers, bad shots and poor defensive execution. These stretches gave the Hoyas enough cushion to win the game. 

The Terps never held a lead and despite cutting the deficit close on multiple occasions, the first impression of each half put the Terps in too deep of a hole.

“We made it tough for ourselves in the first half, on our rebounding, not really guarding the ball well, guarding fouling, getting into the line,” Coit said. “So I would say a lot of things accumulated to that. But overall, it was on us for sure.”

That eight-minute stretch forced the Terps to play from behind and effected any rhythm they could’ve had throughout the rest of the game. Maryland had to play with urgency and it resulted in several sloppy mistakes, turnovers and bad shots. 

Especially at the beginning of the season, these starts were a microcosm of a new team. This is the first big game that anyone on Maryland had played together, while Georgetown had key returners. Friday was Rice’s first game playing with the team and everyone else’s second game — everyone’s first in a packed Xfinity Center. 

“So we fouled too much, and we didn’t get fouled,” Williams said. “ I think that only time will tell. I’m not a genie, but I do think that we have to defend without fouling more, and we have to play with a shot selection thought process.” 

Friday proved that the Terps couldn’t find lightning in a bottle early in the season. A poor start to each half puts an inexperienced team, chemistry-wise, in an almost impossible situation. 

Comeback effort falls short. 

With just over 12 minutes remaining, the Hoyas led by 20. 

Fans were headed for the exits and the Terps showed no fight in coming back. 

Then something changed, Myles Rice and former Terp Deshawn Harris-Smith got face-to-face and were both and both were assessed technical fouls. In a way, the technical to the former Terp gave the Terps momentum.

Georgetown made some substitutions and Maryland found life —- something it simply hadn’t had all night.

“I try not to mess up the flow, and sometimes I think you can overcoach. I think we got up by 16 or 18, and I made a sub. I think we missed the front end of a one-and-one, I think it was at 17, it got to 19 and then I got to nine,” Georgetown head coach Ed Cooley said. “I kind of was kicking myself, because I really don’t like to mess up the flow that group that was out there to start at the second half.”

The Terps went on a 7-0 run after the deficit ballooned to 20. Then, Maryland started to hit shots as the teams battled back-and-forth. The deficit was 10 with just under six minutes left.

Maryland got an and-one from Pharrel Payne, then a steal and layup from Rice. Down by eight, Xfinity Center crowd came alive and Maryland showed life.

But, every time the Terps got close. Georgetown answered and never allowed it to get closer than seven points, holding on to a 10-point victory.