Maryland, the Big Ten’s worst shooting team, found more success than normal against Ohio State Thursday night, but 16 turnovers that turned into 24 OSU points made the difference in an 82-62 loss to the Buckeyes.
Elijah Saunders scored a season-high 20 points on 8-of-12 shooting for the Terrapins (8-14, 1-10 Big Ten), who have now lost four straight, all by at least 19 points. Maryland shot above their 40% average with a 47% performance, but struggled from 3-point range, going 1-for-11 in the first half and 8-for-26 in the game.
“I thought when the ball was in the air, our fight was as good as it’s been in a long time … For us to be able to shoot as many balls as they shot [49] says a lot about our fight,” said Maryland coach Buzz Williams. “We need to defend without fouling. We allowed them twice as many free throws and we had twice as many turnovers.”
Maryland’s Solomon Washington scored 13 points and pulled down 8 rebounds, while Andre Mills added 11 points. Saunders, who was issued a technical foul and ejected along with OSU’s Taison Chatman following a late-game altercation, started in the 11th different lineup for Williams amid an unsettled, injury-plagued season.
“I thought that our 11th lineup change was to see if we could look eye to eye, a little bit more from a height, length standpoint, and to not fight from such a deficit on the glass,” Williams said. “In many respects, I think that happened.”
To his point, the Terrapins did outbound Ohio State, 28-26, despite Maryland’s tallest player (6-foot-10 Aleks Alston) being still 2-4 inches shorter than OSU’s 7-foot centers Christoph Tilly and Ivan Njegovan.
Tilly led the Buckeyes (15-7, 7-5) with 19 points, while guards Bruce Thornton and John Mobley Jr. scored 17 and 15, respectively. But where Ohio State won the game is converting Maryland’s torrent of turnovers into points. Specifically, most of them were fundamental mistakes — balls dribbled off a foot and into the hands of a Buckeye or a lazy pass on the perimeter early in a possession that Ohio State could advance easy in transition.
“It is pass and catch. It is [using] both hands, both feet, both eyes, but it’s also having an outlet to pass it to. And I think sometimes it’s it’s as much the outlet as it is the passing and catching,” Williams said.
This deep into the season, Williams is still searching for “five guys to play really hard when the ball’s on the ground and play even harder when the ball is in the air.” Washington echoed that sentiment, calling out his teammates’ lack of effort in the most pointed postgame comments by a Terrapin this season.
“I’m more concerned about the effort. We always get discouraged anytime a team goes on a run. We’ve got to stop that. It’s basketball,” he said.
“Every practice has to be competitive. If you’re trying to win, you can’t just have a competitive practice one day and the next be lax. Everything has to be at 1,000%”
Losers of seven of their last eight, the Terrapins continue a stretch of five games in 13 days at Minnesota on Sunday afternoon.
• George Gerbo can be reached at ggerbo@washingtontimes.com.
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