Maryland men's basketball fades late in 74-61 loss at No. 12 Nebraska

Of No. 12 Nebraska men’s basketball’s four losses, only one was delivered by an unranked opponent.

The Cornhuskers made sure Maryland did not add to that ledger.

Nebraska overcame its longest drought of the season to overcome the upset-minded Terps, 74-61, on Wednesday night before an announced sold-out crowd of 15,028 at Pinnacle Bank Arena in Lincoln, Neb.

Maryland (11-17, 4-13 Big Ten) was powered by redshirt freshman shooting guard Andre Mills, who continued a torrid stretch by scoring 19 points (16 in the second half) for his seventh double-digit total in his past eight games. The senior frontcourt of power forward Elijah Saunders, who amassed 15 points and three rebounds, and small forward Solomon Washington, who compiled 13 points and seven rebounds, also showed up.

But the Terps suffered their third loss in the past four games and slid to 4-11 in games away from the friendly confines of Xfinity Center in College Park.

“I thought we were playing with unbelievable passion,” coach Buzz Williams told the Maryland Sports Radio Network. “But I thought it was a little too much in regards to our maturity in handling that passion.”

Redshirt freshman small forward Braden Frager came off the bench to pace the Cornhuskers (24-4, 13-4) with a game-high 21 points and eight rebounds. Junior small forward Pryce Sandfort chipped in 16 points, eight rebounds and four assists, senior power forward Rienk Mast racked up 13 points and four rebounds, and senior point guard Sam Hoiberg contributed 12 points, seven rebounds, four assists and three steals as the team won for the third time in its past four games and tied the single-season school record for conference wins set during the 2017-18 season.

Here are three takeaways from the contest.

Maryland’s offense stalled late

Entering the game, the Terps’ average scoring margin in the second half was -4.2 points, which ranked last in the 18-team conference, according to the Big Ten Network. And Nebraska’s +8.3 margin in the same period ranked second in the league.

That discrepancy came to the forefront Wednesday as the Cornhuskers outscored Maryland, 41-34, in the second half on Wednesday. That gap followed a 33-27 advantage at halftime.

After a jumper by Mills gave the Terps a 48-45 edge with 12:07 left in regulation — which turned out to be their biggest of the second half — Nebraska embarked on an 18-3 run over a 5:33 stretch that proved too great for Maryland to overcome.

A recurring problem for the Terps has been their shot accuracy. The offense had made 54.8% (17 of 31) of its attempts through Mills’ jumper, but watched its efficiency slide to 25% (4 of 16) in the last 12 minutes.

Maryland shot 10 3-pointers over that span, but made only three. The offense’s over-reliance on long-range attempts might have been influenced by a Cornhuskers interior defense that gave up just 14 points in the paint, but Williams said that the team failed to look for a better shot instead of taking the first shot.

“Because of how they play defensively, you’re going to shoot more threes than you typically shoot,” he said. “But the threes that we shoot, they have to be on a one-more. It has to be an assisted-sort-of three.”

Free throws and turnovers doomed the Terps

Maryland fell short in a couple key categories.

The Terps went to the foul line just eight times, making seven. But Nebraska was awarded 24 free throws, converting 18 of them.

Maryland committed 19 personal fouls to the Cornhuskers’ 10. The wide disparity caught Williams’ attention.

“At one point in the second half during a timeout, I mentioned to the guys that we had fouled them five [times], and we had fouled them twice,” he said. “I told them that we’ve got to go on a string of not fouling so that it doesn’t become a free-throw contest for a few reasons. One, we could accumulate more possessions. Two, in hopes that we’re playing in a broken floor more because their defense is top 12 in the country, and it’s even better when it’s hat-on-hat in their sets.”

The Terps also turned the ball over 11 times, which is one of their lower totals of the season. But Nebraska gave the ball away only six times, and the difference in that department was exacerbated by a 14-3 advantage in points off of turnovers.

“I thought we had too many turnovers even though it was a low turnover rate for our team,” Williams said. “It’s just hard when you play a top-10 team on the road if you don’t shoot as many balls and you don’t shoot as many free throws. It’s just difficult math to overcome.”

Coit is mired in a slump at a most inopportune time

The graduate student point guard goes by the nickname, “Diggy.” The recent holes he’s dug have been deep.

David Coit scored six points on 2-of-9 shooting, which included a 2-of-8 display from 3-point range. He was Maryland’s most productive player off the bench, but that’s not saying much when the threesome of redshirt freshman small forward George Turkson Jr., junior shooting guard Isaiah Watts and freshman point guard Guillermo Del Pino combined for two points on 1-of-5 shooting.

Coit’s scoring touch has disappeared recently. In his last four games, he has scored 6.8 points per game and has connected on just 11 of 45 shots, including 4 of 27 behind the 3-point line.

Mills has done a Herculean job carrying the offense on his shoulders. But he could use some help from a scorer of Coit’s caliber.

Unfortunately for Mills and the Terps who remain on the bubble as one of the four teams that must play in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament, that assistance has been lacking.