Maryland followed up Tuesday night's season-opening win over Mount St. Mary's with a quick turnaround and Friday night matchup with Davidson in Asheville, North Carolina. The Wildcats took their first lead less than two minutes into the game and were in control for most of the night, never trailing in the second half of a 64-61 win over the Terps. Jahmir Young led the Terps with a game-high 18 points and seven assists, while Julian Reese chipped in with 16 points and 11 rebounds for his first double-double of the season.
The Terps will return to action on Sunday when they will face the loser of Friday night's UAB-Clemson game in the consolation round of the Asheville Championship Tournament.
Here are three takeaways from the Terps' first loss of the season.
Three-point woes continue for Terps
After shooting a woeful 3-for-16 (18.8%) from beyond the arc in the season opener, things didn't get much better shooting the ball from long distance Friday night versus Davidson. Against the Wildcats, the Terps shot just 5-of-23 from deep.
Jahmir Young shot a respectable 3-for-6 from deep, while sophomore Noah Batchelor was 2-for-7 from beyond the arc. But the rest of the Terps shot a combined 0-for-10 from three-point land.
Freshman shooting guard DeShawn Harris-Smith has looked good early on, but one of the knocks on him coming out of high school was his three-point shooting. He's 0-for-5 to start the season.
Simply put, the Terps have to start making their three-point attempts at a higher clip or wins could be hard to come by.
On the flip side, Maryland allowed Davidson to shoot 8-of-15 (53%) from beyond the arc, with clean look after clean look.
Donta Scott struggles
Coming off of a rather lackluster season opener, fifth-year senior Donta Scott struggled on both end of the floor Friday night. Offensively, Scott was just 1-for-5 from the field, missing both of his three-point attempts. He also had several possessions where he simply tried to dribble the ball in the paint and back his man down, only to draw a double team which he didn't pass out of.
Defensively, Scott simply looked lost throughout the game, as on several occasions he failed to find his man who hit a wide open three. Terps center Julian Reese could be seen pointing and yelling at Scott, telling him where he needed to be on defense.
When the Terps were at their best last season, Scott was hitting open looks from three, playing within the flow of the offense and grabbing critical rebounds on both ends of the floor. They need that version of Scott to emerge soon.
Jordan Geronimo or Jamie Kaiser Jr.
Indiana transfer Jordan Geronimo has gotten the start on the wing in each of the Terps' first two games. And while he's proven to be a tough competitor on defense and extremely athletic, his offensive game seems to be lacking.
As for Kaiser, he came to College Park with a reputation as a big-time three-point shooter and a solid defender on the wing. He seemed to live up to that billing in the Terps' opener, knocking down a three and looking good on defense. But so far Kaiser has averaged less minutes that Geronimo while coming off the bench.
With Harris-Smith's three-point shooting seemingly lacking, perhaps Willard would be best served to insert Kaiser into the starting lineup to give the Terps another reliable shooter on the floor and also help spacing, while Geronimo could be the high-energy guy off the bench with his highlight dunks and big blocks.
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