Rutgers University
Maryland
MBB Falls at No. 3 Maryland
Jan 06 | Men's Basketball
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COLLEGE PARK, MD. - Undermanned Rutgers (6-10, 0-3) put forth a strong effort in a hostile environment, but fell to No. 3 Maryland (14-1, 3-0), 88-63, on Wednesday night at the XFINITY Center.
Competing without four injured front court players, The Scarlet Knights were unable to overcome the size disadvantage. UM established a 49-27 advantage in rebounds and outscored the visitors 36-22 in the paint.
Rutgers had four players score in double digits. Bishop Daniels had his first career double-double with 11 points and a career-high 10 rebounds. Corey Sanders posted a team-best 16 points, while Omari Grier added 13 points and D.J. Foreman had 10.
Jake Layman had a game-high 18 points for Maryland. Diamond Stone had a double-double for the Terrapins with 15 points and 10 rebounds.
Maryland raced out to an early 11-4 lead despite four early points for RU, making five of its first ten shots to force a Rutgers timeout. After the break, Mike Williams splashed a three-pointer and sparked a 5-2 RU run to cut the deficit to four.
The Terrapins countered with a 10-0 run as the Scarlet Knights experienced a six-minute scoring drought, missing their next eight shot attempts. A driving layup from Daniels ended that run.
Daniels later sparked a first half highlight, stealing the ball and throwing an alley-oop to Sanders for the slam. But from that point, Maryland closed the half on a 23-3 run, taking a 46-18 lead at intermission.
The Terrapins took advantage of a 31-12 rebounding advantage in the first stanza, in which RU shot just 24 percent.
Despite the deficit, Rutgers responded with a determined second half, shooting 50 percent and outscoring the home team 45-42. Early in the second stanza, Rutgers went on a 6-0 run, with four of those points coming from Grier. The Scarlet Knights used five consecutive made field goals to turn that into a 12-3 RU stretch.
The Terrapins heated up and countered with an 11-0 burst. Rutgers had another late run in them, using a 15-2 spurt to cut into the deficit. The Terps closed out their victory, but the Scarlet Knights finished the game on a 28-11 run.
RU hosts Nebraska on Saturday evening at the RAC. Game time is 5 p.m., and the contest will be televised by ESPNU.
Postgame Notes
- Bishop Daniels had his first career double-double. He set a new career-high with 10 rebounds.
- Daniels led the team with four assists.
- Corey Sanders had his 11thdouble-digit scoring game of the season, most on the team.
- Omari Grier scored in double digits for the third time in the past four games. He is averaging 16 points per game over the last four contests.
- D.J Foreman scored in double figures for the sixth time this season.
- Justin Goode had a career-best two offensive rebounds.
- Maryland now holds a 6-3 edge in the all-time series.
- Rutgers used the starting lineup of guard Bishop Daniels, guard Mike Williams, guard Omari Grier, forward D.J. Foreman and center Greg Lewis for the second consecutive games.
- 17,950 fans attended the game. For the second straight game, RU played in front of the largest crowd it's seen on the season.
Head Coach Eddie Jordan
Opening Statement
"Obviously our team is depleted, because of injuries, in size. But our spirit was 100 percent. Our competitive nature was 100 percent. We played a little smarter in the second half. I appreciate Mark (Turgeon) in understanding where we are and pulling back the hounds a little bit. I liked the way our kids competed. And that's where we are. At halftime I mentioned to our team - we're not concerned about the score, we're not concerned about individual stats, we're concerned about our spirit, our competitiveness, and how we're going to get better to win a game on Saturday. We took some steps towards doing that."
On foul trouble for the forwards
"Let's be responsible was the phrase we used. Be responsible for your minutes. That means you have to guard without fouling, with where we are in our roster right now. You have to block out, you have execute. It's important that the seven scholarship guys we have now be responsible for the minutes you play. You have to treat it like its valuable. You can't commit cheap fouls. And I don't think they were cheap fouls. I thought we handled it pretty well; we just got into foul trouble. They put you in a bad way, with Stone and Dodd and Carter. We're either going to pack it in and help our bigs or they are going to shoot threes, and Maryland's good at both."
On positive takeaways going forward
"What we did in the second half. It's a wonderful thing to see your guys out there coming together, huddling up and having that comradery, knowing that you are undersized. I hope they understand that what we said at halftime remains to be true. You are going to do the things in the next 20 minutes that will help you win at home on Saturday against Nebraska. These are the steps you need to take. We competed."
Maryland head coach Mark Turgeon
Opening Statement:
"Obviously I was proud of my group tonight. I thought defensively, after the first four or five minutes, we were really good. We guarded the ball well, we blocked shots, we rebounded, we were really good defensively. Throughout the half we got better offensively. Obviously they were short-handed. We had some opportunities to get the ball to the rim in the first half. I'm real proud of my guys. We built the lead back up in the second half and kept concentrating. It's just fun that we got to play everybody. We played a ton of zone. We played a lot more zone today then we have all year."
On Jake Layman's willingness to score inside tonight:
"He was just trying to get himself going and get to the foul line. Whenever he gets a layup or gets to the foul line, it usually allows him to make some shots. It's his activity on defense that has really been tremendous. He's playing like a senior, like it's his last go around and wants make the most of it. He's practicing hard and playing hard in the game, he's been great."
On pulling his starters with a lot of time left:
"I've been on the other bench, so I get it. They had to play five guards in the first half, but I wanted our guys to continue to play well and get better. We were able to share more minutes tonight; obviously I didn't play Melo (Trimble) in the second half, which helped me share minutes. We played a lot more zone too, which helped to speed the game up, but also allowed them to score. I hope they get their guys back. It's tough for them right now."
On getting the frontcourt more involved:
"I just told our guys yesterday that we just needed to simplify things. No matter how small they were I wanted to stay big so they could get minutes. During practice, we have our big guys chase around guards through ball screens and handoffs. We were able to do that because we had a lead, but our bigs played well, and we are going to need those guys on Saturday against Wisconsin because they play big most of the time."
