Maryland men’s basketball’s season-opener against Coppin State was expected to be one-sided. Despite 10 new faces making their official Terps’ debut, a matchup against the third-worst team in the country based on KenPom was presumably a great way to kickstart the Buzz Williams era.

For 35 of the 40 minutes Monday night, the script went exactly to plan. But despite Maryland’s 15-point lead at halftime, Coppin State wouldn’t go away, remaining within 10 points for a good chunk of the second half. The Terps needed a 14-0 run late to put away the Eagles and secure the 83-61 victory.

Here are three takeaways from the game

Pharrel Payne’s second-half takeover

Payne imposed his will against UMBC in Maryland’s one-point exhibition victory, leading the charge with a team-high 26 points. It was the opposite story early in Monday’s contest, though.

The 6-foot-9 Texas A&M transfer only had three shots in the opening 20 minutes, draining two of them for a six-point first half. Foul trouble combined with limited paint touches left Payne’s presence largely absent from the game.

However, he showed up when it mattered most.

With the Terps’ deficit trimmed to just seven points, they made it a point of emphasis to feed Payne the rock inside. It paid dividends. He erupted for 9 of Maryland’s 11 points midway through the half.

Payne scored 15 of his 21 points in the second half to become the Terps’ leading scorer. His mobility was also on display, whether in transition or in the pick-and-roll game. Those two elements allowed him to create easy buckets down low.

But his most impressive play of the game came with six minutes left. Payne received the ball at the free-throw line, took one dribble to his right and spun back to evade his defender. His guard traits as a center allowed him to get to the rack with ease and finish off the layup.

Payne was a monster on the glass throughout the second half, snatching four boards and three on the offensive end. With 9:32 remaining on the clock, Payne corralled a rebound in between three defenders and immediately put in back up for a pair of points.

Heavy dosage of threes

While Maryland only attempted one three-pointer in the first nine minutes of its exhibition game — the Terps finished 5-of-15 — it didn’t really need to. The Terps controlled the paint from the opening tip.

Maryland switched its gameplan Monday night, and it worked for 20 minutes.

The Terps jacked up 16 three-pointers in the first half and poured in eight of them. David Coit and Andre Mills fueled the three-point parade, combining for five first-half makes. 16 of Maryland’s 30 shot attempts came from behind the arc, including six of the first nine.

Elijah Saunders also found some success from deep, a promising sign for the Terps going forward. Saunders shot 34.7 from behind the arc last season with Virginia.

“I would say just keep improving my three-point shot. Last season, I was shooting it really well until the end so just trying to carry that through a season,” Saunders said at media day. 

Despite ending up 10-for-29 from three-point range, Maryland’s over reliance from deep came back to bite them later on. The Terps made just one of their first eight second-half triples, allowing Coppin State to climb back in the game.

“That’s not what we’ll end up being able to do, nor what we want,” head coach Buzz Williams said. “Those ones that we were shooting were coming out of rotation. That rotation we weren’t getting in the second half, and we were still shooting them.”

But Maryland made a couple crucial three-pointers down the stretch after working the ball inside and establishing a strong paint presence.

Spreading the wealth

Williams utilized a seven-man rotation in Maryland’s exhibition game against UMBC, relying heavily on Darius Adams and Guillermo Del Pino in the backcourt. But five injured players left fans unsure of what to expect heading into the season.

Terps’ fans saw a glimpse of the rotation going forward on Monday.

Ten players appeared in the first half, but that rotation shrunk down to eight during crunch time. Myles Rice and Solomon Washington are two players that also figure to be starters so the rotation will look a bit different when they return from injury.

But Williams frequently made substitutions in an effort to keep his players fresh for their relentless defensive pressure and fast-paced tempo.

While Maryland doesn’t really have a clear top offensive threat, the Terps relied on decisive ball movement to open up looks for each other. Coit had four of Maryland’s 10 first-half assists on just 16 field-goal makes.

That allowed the Terps to break down Coppin State’s defense from a variety of angles. Six players scored in the first half, led by Andre Mills’ 11-point effort. Five players finished in double figures: Payne with 21, Adams with 16, Saunders with 14, Coit with 13 and Mills with 13.