NCAA Tournament 2016: Kansas’ strong second half ends Maryland’s season
By Chris Bengel
Maryland’s NCAA Tournament run came to a close on Thursday night.
Despite a strong first half, the Terrapins fell to No. 1 seed Kansas 79-63. The Jayhawks were led by senior forward Perry Ellis, who scored 27 points and grabbed five rebounds.
Maryland got 18 points (6-of-12) from guard Rasheed Sulaimon and 17 points (5-of-16) from guard Melo Trimble in the loss. As a team, the Terps continued to struggle from behind the three-point line as they shot a lowly 20 percent (5-of-25).
This really was a game that was a tale of two halves.
Maryland really got the ball rolling early on. After Ellis missed a jump shot to open the contest, the Terps came down the floor and got a designed three-pointer from Sulaimon off an inbounds play to open the scoring.
Trimble came out extremely aggressive and drilled two of his first three shots from the floor to give Maryland a 7-6 lead with 16:47 left in the first half.
Over a nearly three-minute stretch, Maryland went on a 7-0 run to extend their lead to 14-8 with 11:33 to go in the opening half. The outburst featured five points coming from Sulaimon, who was easily Maryland’s most consistent player.
The Terps went toe-to-toe with the Jayhawks the entire first half and held their biggest lead of six points at 18-12 with 9:36 left thanks to a Jake Layman slam dunk. In Layman’s final collegiate game, he netted just eight points on three-of-eight shooting.
Live Feed
Busting Brackets
With 5:33 remaining in the first stanza, Kansas finally regained the lead at 27-26 after a pair of free throws from Devonte’ Graham. Ironically, those were the only two points that Graham scored during the entire game.
Both teams exchanged having the lead through the final four minutes of the half. With 2:44 left, Maryland took a 32-29 lead after baskets on three consecutive possessions by Damonte Dodd, Trimble, and Layman.
Dodd, who played at Massanutten Military Academy with Kansas’ Frank Mason, played significant minutes for the second straight game, but wasn’t nearly as effective as he was against Hawaii. He finished with four points, three rebounds, and zero blocks against the Jayhawks.
Maryland trailed 36-34 at the break after a layup from Landen Lucas gave Kansas the lead just before halftime.
Maryland played a great first half that was made possible by superb defense and hitting key shots. Sulaimon and Trimble combined to score 22 of the team’s 36 points.
The second half began the same way as the entire first half went.
Guard Wayne Selden Jr. came down and connected on a jumper on one end and forward Robert Carter answered with a three-pointer from the wing on the other end. Carter’s three was answered by one from Mason, who scored 11 points despite being hampered multiple injuries.
With 18:04 left, Sulaimon converted a layup to tie the game at 41. On the ensuing possession, Ellis hit a jumper to give Kansas the lead back at 43-41.
Unfortunately for Maryland, they would never regain the lead or tie the game back up. Kansas got the lead up to 50-43 at the Under 16 media timeout thanks to five consecutive points from Selden.
Trimble and the Terps continued to try and fight back into the game. He hit a three-pointer with 14:29 to go, which cut the Jayhawk lead to 52-46.
Like most of the Terps over the past two NCAA Tournament games, Trimble struggled from beyond the arc as he only hit one of his seven attempts from out there.
Maryland then went on a nearly four-minute drought where they didn’t record a made field goal. Carter scored at the 10:30 mark to cut the lead to 59-50.
The Terps were able to cut it to a seven-point deficit, but that was as close as they would get the rest of the way. Kansas outscored Maryland 43-29 in the second half and ended up outrebounding the Terps 43-28 when the dust settled.
The 2015-16 season came to an end for Maryland in Louisville on Thursday evening despite lofty expectations. The Terps did manage to win a pair of tournament games over Hawaii and South Dakota State and advance to the Sweet 16.
Next: Maryland looks to take down Kansas
Despite it being an emotional scene in the Maryland locker room after the game, this was a team that went toe-to-toe with arguably the best team in the country and didn’t back down.