Maryland Terrapins Down Morgan State: Laymania Has Arrived

Nov 29, 2013; College Park, MD, USA; Maryland Terrapins forward Jake Layman (10) drives for a basket before being fouled by Morgan State Bears center Ian Chiles (50) at Comcast Center. Mandatory Credit: Mitch Stringer-USA TODAY Sports

Maryland 89 Morgan State 62

For Jake Layman, it was a day of career highs.

A career high 27 points, besting his previous high of 20 points against Virginia Tech last year; a career high seven three pointers, besting his prior record of four (which he’s accomplished four times so far).

Layman made his living on corner threes tonight, hitting two in the first quarter and doubling that number in the second, and Maryland found players all over the court for 26 assists (I’ll check back later, but that may be a Turgeon era record). But it wasn’t just Layman who was ungurdable, because Smotrycz was just as effective.

Smotrycz, fresh off his first double-double as a Maryland Terrapin during the Paradise Jam championship game, followed that up with 19 points and 12 rebounds (four of which were offensive.) Smotrycz was nearly as potent from deep, as he went four of six from deep, connecting on corner threes off kick outs just like Layman.

At times, the game just looked like a run and shoot competition. Still, Turgeon wasn’t happy about all the performance, particularly the regression in the turnover department, where Maryland had 18.

“The negatives were the free throw shooting,” Turgeon said afterwards “The wrong guys are getting fouled….we had turnovers, way too many turnovers tonight. We did a great job at the Paradise Jam taking care of the ball.”

The Bears scored 31 in both the first and second half, and never really had a chance at beating the Terps given that they couldn’t stop anything on defense. Ian Chiles finished with 17 points, 6 rebounds and two blocks, and local product Justin Black had 13 points, but no other Bears player scored in double figures.

Morgan State shot just 3-of-14 from deep, and 36.7% overall from the floor. Compare that to the Terrapins, who hit 66% of their threes, and shot 62% from the floor.

Mark Turgeon said after the game that the team was planning on watching more film from the Paradise Jam rather than from this one. Indeed, it felt like the game wasn’t an accurate representation of any kind of defense.

Next up, Ohio State, where Maryland will be taking on the #7 Buckeyes on December 4th in Columbus.