Maryland Basketball: Anthony Cowan bounces back in a big way

Anthony Cowan had only scored in double figures once in the past five games before he took the floor against Ohio State.

The talented freshman needed a strong performance to get back on track and boy did he deliver.

In a game that the Terrapins had to have, Cowan delivered a team-high 19 points (3-of-5 shooting), four assists, and three rebounds. It also didn’t hurt that three other Maryland players finished in double figures.

When you look at the box score, the first thing that jumps out about Cowan’s performance was his ability to get the free throw line. The former St. John’s College (D.C.) standout went a perfect 10-for-10 from the charity stripe.

Cowan played a very aggressive brand of basketball, especially in the second half. He drove to the rim quite a bit, which may have been a little surprising considering that his shot was falling from three.

It also helps that Cowan is an above-average shooter at the line. His 75 percent clip is the second-highest on the team just behind Melo Trimble.

All of his makes from the charity stripe came in the final 20 minutes.

Cowan also did get his shooting stroke going early on in Saturday’s game, which made him that much more dangerous

Just over two minutes into the game, Cowan brought the ball up the floor before handing it off to Trimble. Trimble had the ball across the court and spotted a wide-open Cowan in the corner.

Cowan composed himself and hoisted a successful attempt from beyond the arc to put the Terps up 7-0.

Three-point shooting hasn’t exactly been Cowan’s most dangerous attribute during his freshman campaign. After all, he’s only shooting 29.5 percent from beyond the arc.

However, he made three of his four attempts from long-range against the Buckeyes.

With 9:50 left in the second half, Cowan got into the act once again. As the shot clock was winding down, he fed the ball to Ivan Bender outside the paint.

Bender didn’t really have any room to make a move towards the basket, so he passed the ball back to Cowan. The freshman guard launched a deep three with just four seconds left in the shot clock and it went down.

Leading up to Cowan’s pass, it was an offensive possession that didn’t produce any high percentage looks. As announcer Dan Dakich alluded to during the broadcast, Cowan really bailed out his team and extended the Terp lead to 66-54.

Cowan really displayed his versatility as a guard. He channeled his backcourt mate, Trimble, as he shoot well from the outside and put the ball on the floor and drew contact when he had to.

Next: Terps get some help from Northwestern

While he’s not going to shoot the three-ball like this every night, it’s still nice to see how fearless he can be.