Baltimore duo lifts Maryland over Belmont
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- It came down to the wire between No. 6 seed Maryland and No. 11 seed Belmont to determine a round one winner in the NCAA Tournament March 21, but in the end, the Terps rode the coattails of two former high school teammates to defeat the Bruins in Jacksonville, 79-77, and advance to the Round of 32 against No. 3 seed LSU.
Mount St. Joseph High School (Baltimore, Md.) grads Jalen “Stix” Smith and Darryl Morsell led the Terps in scoring against the Bruins Thursday with 19 and 18 points, respectively. For Smith, it was his fifth double-double of the season as he also posted 12 rebounds, and Morsell recorded a new season-high in points for himself.
“Our B-more guys stepped up today,” Maryland head coach Mark Turgeon said. They were terrific. Stix (Smith) just wouldn’t be denied. He just kept getting offensive rebounds. We had a size advantage there and we took advantage of it. We got down four, Darryl hit a big three in the corner, cut it to one, and I felt pretty good about things.”
The postseason victory ends a drought for Maryland that dates back to 2016 and adds to the resume of the fourth-youngest team in college basketball.
“It was a terrific game,” Turgeon said. “I’m just really proud of my team. We were unbelievably resilient. We didn’t shoot the ball well in the first half. They made some shots. They’re a heck of a team. We beat a really good team today...I told the guys, just an honor and a privilege to be a part of a game like that this time of year, and to come out on top makes it real special.”
As it has many times before this season, Maryland started the game slow offensively and allowed Belmont to build its lead to 12 about midway through the first half. But the Terps overcame their early woes and began the second half on a 14-0 run to get themselves back in the game and build momentum to pull off the victory.
“Early in the year, [the slow start] might have affected our defense,” Turgeon said. “It didn’t affect our defense (today). That team is too good for us to let down defensively. So we kept trying to guard. We knew it was going to come, and we made some plays right before half. I think that gave us confidence going into halftime, and then we started the second half terrific, which we’ve done a lot this year.
“I’m so proud of my group. We gutted it out. We just kept battling, we kept battling, we kept battling. We played with great poise offensively. Defensively down the stretch we were just good enough.
Perhaps Maryland’s biggest defensive play against Belmont came in the waning seconds of the game courtesy of Morsell, who cut in front of a passing lane to force the Bruins into a turnover that would send him to the line and ultimately seal the deal for the Terps.
“Coaches were screaming, ‘Back door!’ so I kind of knew it was coming,” Morsell said. “But Eric (Ayala) was right there. He got his hand on the ball, which helped me a lot, and I got a steal.”
As Maryland’s primary perimeter defender, Morsell was charged with the task of guarding Belmont leading scorer and NBA prospect, Dylan Windler, who went off for a game-high 35 points to go along with his team-high 11 rebounds.
“Dylan Windler is a phenomenal player,” Morsell said. “He can score at all three levels. Today he found his rhythm early. He was hitting some big shots, some step-backs, some fadeaways. But I just stuck with it. My teammates, Bruno, Eric, Anthony, all of them kept picking me up going, telling me, ‘Keep guarding, keep guarding., we’re going to find a way to win this game.’”
Morsell might not have been as effective on the defensive end as the Terps have come accustomed to him being, but he made up for it on the offensive end, providing a spark that Maryland’s guards needed with starting point guard Anthony Cowan Jr. shooting 3-for-18 from the field and 1-for-10 from three.
“Offensively, I just tried to find ways to impact the game,” Morsell said. “I seen them double-teaming Bruno. That gave me opportunities to cut in the lane. Was getting stops defensively, which allowed me to get out in transition and stuff. It’s just a credit to my teammates for all the success I had.”
Besides Smith and Morsell, two other key factors for the Terps in their two-point win was their ability to take care of the ball and rebounding advantage.
“We tried to get every rebound that came off the rim and just look for open guards and open shots, and making sure we just do what big men do,” Smith said.
Winning on the boards have been a constant for Maryland this season, but turning the ball over just five times was a huge accomplishment for Turgeon’s team that has struggled in that area throughout the year.
“We’ve really been working on turnovers,” Turgeon said. “We had five turnovers for the game. We had two against the press in the first half, and so we only had two in the second half, so we really did a terrific job there.”
The Terps also received a scoring boost from freshman guard Eric Ayala, who netted 12, while Cowan took on the role of distributor with six assists to just one turnover.
It’s on to LSU on Saturday for the Terps, and while a trip back to Washington, DC, to play in front of their home crowd in the Sweet 16 is now a highly motivating factor, Maryland used a different source of motivation to get itself ready to beat Belmont.
“Everybody was predicting that we would lose, and that motivates you a little bit,” Turgeon said. “It’s not fair to Belmont that people who don’t know a lot about basketball are picking them to beat us. So we were highly motivated, and this time of year, you lose, your go home, so you stick together. We stuck together.”