By Ben Tugendstein

Maryland basketball blitzed Rutgers Wednesday night and rolled to an 88-63 win. They shared the points – and the spotlight – and the undermanned Scarlet Knights were clearly overmatched.

Before the game even started there was some confusion among Coach Turgeon and his staff. Diamond Stone was supposed to start on the bench, as he’s been doing most of the season. However, due to a clerical error, he got the start at center instead of Damonte Dodd.

Once the ball was tipped it became clear that the mishap wasn’t going to hurt the Terrapins. Rutgers was missing four key players due to injury, and only was fielding two players taller than 6’4″.

The Terps were locked in defensively and held Rutgers to just 18 first half points. Meanwhile, Maryland was spearheaded by Sulaimon, Layman, and Stone offensively.

Maryland did suffer a scare as with about four minutes to go in the first half star point guard Melo Trimble came up lame, holding his leg. He didn’t play in the second half, but Coach Turgeon stressed that Trimble should be fine, and the feeling was that he would go Saturday in Wisconsin.

The second half was largely inconsequential to the final outcome. But Varum Ram was able to secure a career high 17 minutes and five points, including a three pointer that induced the largest cheer of the night.

Maryland continues play on Saturday afternoon against Wisconsin in Madison.