If first impressions mean anything, the fresh-faced Terps may have made a lot of new fans Friday evening.
Maryland put on a shooting display from (most) everywhere as the Terps demolished the visiting Wagner Seahawks in the first post-Comcast Center game, 82-48 in front of a crowd of 10,015.
The Terrapins got 52 points from their starters in a game that no one was really expecting the Seahawks to be in from the beginning. Dez Wells and Jake Layman looked like new men on the court, and together combined for 34 points on 12-of-18 shooting from the floor. Wells threw down a few very impressive jams while sporting his new #44 jersey (which was previously owned by the now departed Shaquille Cleare), and weathered through a scary ankle injury in the second half to finish with 18 points.
Layman was no slouch, either; he finished one rebound and four assists shy of a triple-double effort. Layman was all over the court, and looked considerably more agile than times last season while pushing the pace with the young Terps. Perhaps best of all, Layman scored all 16 of his points without hitting a single three-pointer. In previous years, that was almost never the case.
But we’re obviously all in this to hear about how that heralded freshman class performed.
Melo Trimble, the Terps McDonald’s All-American starting point guard, looked like a very capable scorer as he finished with 13 points on 3-of-8 shooting. During the first half, Trimble wowed people by showing off his range as he hit back-to-back three pointers to spur a 9-0 run in which the Terps basically put the game away early. Trimble didn’t necessarily have one set position, running some point and shooting guard at the same time. As a result, he surprisingly finished with 0 assists.
Still, the best part about Trimble was the all-around game. He hit pull up jumpers that will go in against anyone, he only had one turnover (a huge change from last year’s point guards), and he played with a fair amount of tenacity on defense.
Dion Wiley had a fantastic all-around game for the Terps, finishing with 8 points, 2 rebounds and 1 assist for Maryland. Wiley hit his only three pointer, but showed off some jitters in going 3-of-6 from the free throw line. The Terps as a team showed off their spots in that regard; as a unit they went 27-of-41.
Jared Nickens and Michal Cekovsky had 5 points and 3 points respectively. Nicken saw 22 minutes of action, calming down after bricking his first three point attempt off the backboard. Cekovsky, meanwhile, grabbed 3 rebounds and block a pair of shots in late play. He would have had three, but one was called off around the six minute mark due to goaltending. While his three fouls suggest he might need a little more fine tuning, as a whole it was a good debut for the young European.
Terps transfer Richaud Pack managed 8 points in his Maryland debut thanks to a pair of three pointers. Most importantly, he showed he was capable of running the point position, a big question mark for Maryland.
Wagner didn’t have much to write home about. Only freshman Nolan Long, who came off the bench, finished with 13 points as the lone double-digit scorer. Long, who happens to be both a baseball pitcher and a basketball player, played admirably, but with zero starters scoring much things went downhill early.
The Seahawks scored 17 points in the first quarter and got 12 points from their starters in total thanks to a 26% shooting display. Everything Wagner tried to put to the rim was sent away, as the Terps had six blocks for the night.
Maryland next plays host to Central Connecticut State on November 17 at 7:30 P.M.
All in all, great showing.