As fans filed into Xfinity Center for the first of Maryland men’s basketball’s eight February games, the first thing that caught the eye was the color around the court.
The Terps were prepared for their
cancer awareness game. The student section was resplendent in pink, matching the team’s uniforms.
From there, the next-most prominent colors were the black and Boilermaker gold of fans of No. 12 Purdue, the opponents on the day. They represented well, matching the student section — finally back from break — in voice for most of the night.
The next-most frequent was the deep red of empty seats.
Surrounded by splashes of color, Maryland’s basketballing display was black and white. The Terps looked devoid of any true color or fight as they suffered their largest-ever loss in Xfinity Center, a 93-63 defeat that cast a sorrowful shade of blue over College Park.
From the jump, Williams implored his team to meet Purdue with aggressive face-guarding starting at midcourt. Maryland did — but not to great effect. Purdue made six of its first seven field goals.
Myles Rice was named a starter for the Terps for the first time since Dec. 20. Williams attempted to run his offense through the junior. He spent 17 minutes on the court in total.
Rice finished without a point or assist, and just one rebound. He turned the ball over twice, and stole it away from Purdue twice..
Whether it was Rice or Coit attempting to quarterback, Maryland’s offense was again lifeless. The Terps scored seven points through the opening 11:15 of the game.
At the same time, Purdue also played excellent defense, consistently matching on switches and suffocating Maryland’s perimeter game without fouling.
Only in transition did it really feel like Maryland had a fair chance to score. It was Darius Adams who potted a 3-pointer after a Solomon Washington rebound and fast break to snap a 6:10 run without a field goal.
But soon thereafter, Andre Mills swished back-to-back heavily contested 3-pointers with a man in his face. Somehow, inexplicably, the Terps were only down by 10 points with six minutes remaining in the first half.
Maryland’s offense actually looked more cohesive from that point onward — but the deficit ballooned to 21 by the time the Terps returned to the locker room.
That’s because they just could not handle the one-two punch of Fletcher Loyer and Braden Smith.
Loyer came out on fire. He made seven first-half field goals — Maryland had just nine as a team. He consistently found a foot of space against Adams and Rice, and made them pay. Loyer scored 29 points in 27 minutes on the court.
Smith has had his way with nearly every team Purdue has met this season, and Maryland was no different. He dominated Coit off the dribble to the extent that Williams sat him for stretches to try and stay competitive defensively.
The defensive competition never coalesced, though.
Purdue slowed down its offense, seemingly in an attempt to drain clock, yet its second half remained wildly efficient. The Boilermakers shot 52.7% from the field, and when the Terps resorted to fouling, Purdue went 20-of-25 from the stripe.
Head coach Matt Painter taking his foot off the gas allowed Maryland to finally create some offense.
Adams found more of a touch in the second half. He made six of 14 field goal attempts and finished with 17 points — his most in Big Ten play.
Still, Maryland never got the game closer than 18 points.
Raucous chants of “Let’s go Boilers” rocked Xfinity Center for the final four minutes of the game, drowning out the boos that opposed it. As the Boilermakers celebrated snapping a three-game losing streak, Maryland fans were already walking home, wondering what they would have to cheer for over the final month of the season.
Three things to know
1. Big losses becoming a thing. The Terps’ loss to Purdue was its fourth of 30 or more points on the season. Across all its seasons since coming to the Big Ten before this one, the Terps had had just three such losses.
2. Ruinous rebounding. In the first half, Purdue grabbed more offensive rebounds (eight) than Maryland had defensive rebounds (six). The Boilermakers also grabbed 12 of 13 first-half Maryland misses on their defensive end. The Terps were more competitive in that regard in the second half, but the damage had already been done on both ends of the court.
3. Elijah Saunders’ day off. No Terp had a more difficult time against Purdue than Elijah Saunders. Tasked with going up against forward Trey Kaufman-Renn and occasionally 7-foot-4 center Daniel Jacobsen, Saunders got himself into foul trouble early but had to return to the court. He fouled out 5:20 into the second half and finished with no points, no rebounds and a turnover in 13 minutes on the court.
