Maryland Basketball: Damonte Dodd & Jared Nickens lead the way

Damonte Dodd and Jared Nickens have had up-and-down play this season to say the least.

On Saturday against Michigan, the duo proved to be the difference in Maryland’s 77-70 victory.

Dodd tied for the team lead with 15 points (6-of-11 shooting) and grabbed four rebounds. On the other hand, Nickens added 12 points of his own, which all came from beyond the arc.

It was easily the most productive outing for both Terrapins up to this point in the season.

Dodd hasn’t had much of a chance to develop any sort of consistent play. He’s missed seven games with a concussion and most recently, a sprained MCL.

His first game back was last Sunday against Nebraska. Dodd played just 13 minutes and only scored six points in Maryland’s 67-65 loss to the Cornhuskers.

Dodd really camped out in the low post and was able to make his living down there throughout Saturday’s game.

For example, with 8:33 left in the contest, Melo Trimble drove towards the basket before dropping the ball off to Dodd right under the rim. The Eastern Shore native was bothered by Michigan’s Moritz Wagner and missed the initial shot.

However, the senior center was able to corral the offensive rebound and slam the putback home with authority. Dodd’s bucket gave the Terrapins a 55-49 lead at the time.

Dodd also made the most of his opportunities at the free throw line. He went three-for-three from the charity stripe, which is very encouraging considering that he’s a 66.7 percent foul shooter on the season.

The Maryland big man was extremely reliable when he got the ball down low. He took high percentage shots and proved to be a lifeline for the Terp guards.

Nickens also offered a unique skillset that the Terps desperately needed against the Wolverines.

Entering Saturday’s game, the Monmouth Junction (NJ) native had only made multiple three-pointers in two other games this season. Those came when he hit a pair of trifectas against St. Mary’s College (Md.) on Nov. 17 and Charlotte on Dec. 20.

Nickens had only been shooting 21.8 percent (12-of-55) from three throughout the 2016-17 season prior to Saturday.

Three-point shooting has always been Nickens’ biggest strength by far. Fortunately, the former Westtown School (Pa.) star found his groove against Michigan.

With 10:24 remaining in the opening half, Nickens was able to grab a Michigan miss on one end before giving up the ball to Anthony Cowan.

On the ensuing trip up the floor, Nickens hung out in the corner before wiggling his way free thanks to an Ivan Bender screen. Cowan delivered a perfect pass that allowed Nickens to catch and shoot.

Nickens made good on his first three-point attempt and went on to make his next three throughout the game.

The junior guard really can be one of Maryland’s biggest assets off the bench when his shot is falling. While it hasn’t been throughout the season, he has shot 64.3 percent (9-of-14) from three-point range over the last five games.

Obviously, most of the scoring talk tends to center around Trimble and the fabulous trio of freshmen. However, there are some games where their shots may not be falling from the perimeter.

Luckily for Maryland, they connected on 66.7 percent (10-of-15) of their shots from three on Saturday. That combined with the inside game of Dodd is a great recipe for success.

When Michal Cekovsky comes back, these could be huge pieces from a secondary scoring standpoint. After all, Maryland has yet to be 100 percent healthy at any point this season.

Next: Mike London departure comes at bad time

When that happens, we’ll get a much better idea of how good this team could be.