Washington traveled cross-country for an early game against a struggling Maryland team with hopes of building on their win over Minnesota. The Terps took Washington out of their game with aggressive double teams on Hannes Steinbach all day. The other Dawgs could not take advantage often enough and the Huskies came out on the short end of a 64-60 defeat.
The first half of the game followed an unfamiliar pattern for Husky fans. The offense got off to a hot shooting start. Zoom Diallo and Wesley Yates
both excelled in the early going and helped the Dawgs take a 13-5 lead. The margin wouldn’t hold, though, as the Terps quickly went on a 9-0 run to get the lead back. The teams traded buckets for the remainder of the half with Hannes Steinbach mostly quiet. He made the last two buckets of the half to total six in the half and keep UW within two at the break. With heavy defensive focus on Steinbach, he didn’t have a rebound or assist at the break.
The game stayed close early in the second half. At the same time, Maryland’s leading scorer, David Coit, remained in the bench without a basket to his name. Despite a short run by Maryland, the Huskies turned the tide with good ball movement against the Maryland zone defense and a fourth foul on big man Solomon Washington.
The added attention on Steinbach created space for the other Huskies. Diallo took advantage, but the others missed too many open shots and struggled to move the ball quickly. Maryland ended possessions quickly with a rebounding advantage and made enough threes to punish the Dawgs when they stayed in the lane.
Even with these issues, a Steinbach fadeaway in the last two minutes tied the game at 60. Maryland made a pair of free throws and the Huskies missed a pair of threes and a layup on the ensuing possession. The Terps then finished the game with an exclamation point alley oop.
