COLLEGE PARK — In a grinding season that has seen Maryland lose its first six Big Ten games — all by double digits — amid 38 games missed due to injury, few things have been consistent.
The lone, unchanging constant? David “Diggy” Coit, who in a season of remarkable performances, did it again for the Terrapins.
The graduate guard was untouchable Sunday afternoon, breaking his own Xfinity Center record with 43 points, including an eye-popping 30 in the first half, to lead Maryland to its first Big Ten win of the season, 96-73, over Penn State.
“Obviously, felt hot, felt good going into the game, I felt the momentum from the team and just seeing a couple shots go in, and [teammates] telling me they can’t guard me, be aggressive,” Coit said. “My team always give me that confidence, so I felt good from the start.”
Once again, without leading scorer and rebounder Pharrel Payne, who’s missed the last seven games with a leg injury, Coit outclassed everyone and again wrote his name into Maryland annals. His 43 on 14-of-23 shooting ties Al Bunge for the second-most points in a single game in program history and breaks his own record in Maryland’s home gym, a 41-point show against Mount St. Mary’s in November. His nine made threes also tied a Maryland record.
“He has video game tendencies … He has an ability to score at his size that’s uncommon,” Maryland coach Buzz Williams said. “He can gain space because he’s always played as an undersized guard, and his ability to make shots, particularly off the dribble, is is rare, and so it was fun to watch. I’m happy for him, I’m happy for our team, and to some degree, we needed what he did today.”
Coit had multiple opportunities in the final minutes to take a crack at Ernest Graham’s program-record of 44, set against North Carolina State in 1978. However, he opted instead to let his teammates have the ball in a game that was already in hand.
“I wasn’t chasing it. I knew I could have. They would have let me take every shot,” Coit said. “But obviously, [Penn State] was being physical. They was being aggressive. It was getting chippy. And I just think it was smarter for me to just not do that. I mean, if I made, what, two free throws? It’d been different.”
His repertoire included it all — devastating, step-back threes coupled with strong drives to the basket — leading to his fourth 30-plus point effort of the season and 11th in double-figures.
Coit made his first four shots and scored 11 in the first 5 minutes. Coit stretched his run to 16 of Maryland’s first 25 points before Elijah Saunders hit his second triple of the game to grow the Terrapins’ lead to 28-20 midway through the first half. Saunders finished with 16 points, while Darius Adams added 14 as the only other Terrapins to finish with more than 10.
“Diggy has been around the world and back, and his story should be told at a higher decibel level, but I don’t think that it should be told because he can score however many points he can score,” Williams said. “His heart is beating for the right things, and his growth in the six months I have known him off the floor has probably been at a higher rate than it has been in a long time.”
The league’s second-worst 3-point shooting team, Maryland, knocked down six of its first eight from beyond the arc. A 54.1% overall shooting effort was nearly 15 percentage points better than its Big Ten-worst 39.8% average.
The win snaps a four-game losing streak for Maryland (8-10, 1-6 Big Ten), who, along with Penn State, both entered Sunday as two of the only three teams without a conference win. Maryland’s 0-6 start to conference play was its worst since the 1988-89 season, when it lost its first seven ACC games.
“I really admire the resilience of our group, and I’m very grateful for the creativity of our coaches,” Williams said. “We’ve continued to learn with each passing week, I think we’re committed to the process of learning not only our players, but learning the league and continuing to find measurements within the margins to give ourselves a chance.”
Nittany Lions leading scorer Kayden Mingo returned from a broken nose that required surgery and caused him to miss the last two weeks of action, leading Penn State (9-9, 0-7) with 19 points on 7-of-12 shooting.
PSU missed its last eight shots of the half and did not score in the final 3:41 before halftime. Maryland’s 56 first-half points were its most ever in a Big Ten game. The Terrapins’ 56-26 lead at the break seemed insurmountable, but Coit was held scoreless for the first 10:57 of the second half. That allowed Penn State to significantly chip away.
A 20-1 Nittany Lions’ run in the early part of the second half cut Maryland’s lead to 61-51, as the Terrapins didn’t score for five minutes.
Coit took matters into his own hands, again, scoring eight straight Maryland points to push the lead back up to 14 at 87-63 and finish off the Nittany Lions.
“I would say it a testament to his hard work, like seeing Diggy in the gym every day after practice, before practice. I feel like he might definitely get the most shots up on the team, but probably just as much or more than anyone I’ve ever played with,” Saunders said.
The most formidable part of the Terrapins’ schedule begins Wednesday with a two-game road trip at No. 13 Illinois and No. 12 Michigan State to close out the month before Maryland hosts No. 5 Purdue on Feb. 1.
• George Gerbo can be reached at ggerbo@washingtontimes.com.
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