BALTIMORE — A freshman flourish and unexpected 3-point barrage in the first half helped Maryland stake out an early lead and pad its margin late to begin the Buzz Williams era with a victory.
Redshirt freshman Andre Mills scored 11 of his 13 points in the first half, and his former Texas A&M teammate Pharrel Payne led all scorers with 21 to lift the Terrapins to an 83-61 win over Coppin State on Monday in the Basketball Hall of Fame Series season opener.
“I understand it’s a small sample size, but I thought there was more continuity on both sides of the ball for building block one, so to say,” Williams said. “I thought the energy was more pure.”
Payne shot 6-of-8 and scored 15 of his 21 in the second half as Maryland (1-0) had to fend off a cold shooting start after the break to build its comfortable final margin.
“I think we came out with the impression that we’re willing to fight. I think those are one of our pillars, that we’re always willing to fight, to compete,” Payne said.
Mills was joined in the starting lineup by true freshmen Darius Adams and Del Pino, the first such duo to start for the Terrapins since current NBA stars Jalen Smith and Aaron Wiggins in the 2018 season.
“I think we played five guys tonight that had never done this when it counted,” Williams said, “and [Mills’] ruggedness, his physicality, he really helps us on both sides of the rim … He’s OK hitting somebody. He’s OK getting hit. He doesn’t fall down a lot. And we need that ruggedness.”
Adams was a team-leading 10-of-12 from the foul line, and the second-leading Terrapin scorer with 16 points.
“I think trying to play inside out, getting fouled, just helps our team and it’s easy points,” Adams said.
“We need the other parts of his game to continue to improve,” Williams said, “but in our three contests [including exhibitions], his ability to get fouled has been really helpful.”
Ten of the 13 available Terrapins saw action, with five of them — Mills, Adams, Payne, David Coit and Elijah Saunders — scoring in double figures.
“I thought at times our execution on what we wanted to do was more apparent. I think the guys that were on the court, regardless of who they were, at least they were at least trending in the same direction, instead of spraying and unsure,” Williams said.
Coppin State (0-1) was led by Khali Horton’s 19 points, but turned the ball over 20 times in the loss.
Williams utilized the same five starters, including Payne and Saunders, who took the floor in Maryland’s exhibition against UMBC last week. The Terrapins remained without junior guard Myles Rice and senior forward Solomon Washington, both dealing with ankle injuries.
Coit and fellow guard Isaiah Watts, both of whom did not play in the exhibition, were Williams’ first two substitutions off the bench against Coppin State.
Watts, donning a Batman-style black mask to protect his right eye that was injured in a practice last month, hit one of three Maryland threes early to help build a 15-6 lead in the first 5 minutes.
Nine of Maryland’s first 14 shots and 17 of its 30 in the first half were from beyond the arc, an unexpected prevalence for a Williams-led team, but perhaps a necessary one with so much inexperience in the lineup.
“If I was projecting, I would say that’s not what we’ll end up being able to do, nor what we would want,” Williams said. “We probably fell prey in the wrong way to thinking that was what we want to be about, and I don’t think long term any team can be about that.”
That prevalence had a similar vibe to the initial stages of Maryland’s 2023-24 season under Kevin Willard, which featured a freshman-heavy presence and high volume of three-point attempts. Willard departed acrimoniously for Villanova after the end of his third season and Maryland’s Sweet 16 appearance in March, and Williams was hired to replace him in April.
Maryland held a 47-32 lead at halftime, led by Mills’ 11 points and eight made threes as a team. Coppin State cut that margin to seven with a 12-5 run after halftime, as shooting fell off precipitously for Maryland, which was only 2-of-10 to open the second half.
“I think what led to that from a negative standpoint, we just we weren’t guarding the ball.” Williams said. “We were in rotation, and we weren’t getting stops and able to play in a broken floor.”
The Eagles would endure a 5-plus-minute streak without a basket in the middle of the final stanza, however, as Maryland regained its form. A 17-4 run, powered by 9 points from Payne, gave Maryland a 24-point lead, 77-53, and put the game away.
Next up for Maryland: The Terrapins renew their rivalry with Georgetown for the first time in nine years on Friday night in College Park.
• George Gerbo can be reached at ggerbo@washingtontimes.com.
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