By Connor Wilson
The highly anticipated Basketball Hall of Fame Tip-Off Event lived up to the hype Saturday afternoon as the Maryland Terrapins defeated the Saint Louis Billikens 95-67 and the Miami Hurricanes defeated the Providence Friars 74-64 in two great matchups.
After today’s games, Maryland and Miami will meet in the championship game of the tournament tomorrow at 1 p.m. on ESPN and Saint Louis and Providence will meet in the consolation game at 3:30 p.m. on ESPNU.
Here are my takeaways from today’s events, starting with the Terps and Billikens.
Hakim Hart and Don Carey celebrate during Saturday's win over Saint Louis
Maryland came into today’s contest after back to back games in which it shot poorly from three point range, going 2-19 against Western Carolina and 4-20 against Binghamton. The Terps flipped the script in Uncasville, as they shot 13-32 against the Billikens from distance.
Donta Scott led the way offensively for the Terps, as the senior forward matched his career high with 25 points on 8-13 shooting to go along with five rebounds. The wings were also very effective, as graduate student guard Don Carey and senior guard Hakim Hart each scored 16 points.
“I’m just trying to stay locked in,” Scott said. “Because when you play defense it turns to offense. Coach always tells me to take my time and I did today, didn’t try to force anything.”
Despite scoring those 95 points in the victory, the story of the game was defensive effort for Maryland all throughout. Saint Louis was held to just 36.2% from the field and 25% from three. Billikens junior guard Yuri Collins was held to just 12 points and six assists, the latter of which was a season low for him.
Maryland's Donta Scott attempts a layup over Saint Louis' Jake Forrester
“I think Yuri is one of the best point guards in the country,” Maryland head coach Kevin Willard said. “I played against him four years ago I think. I love his game and he’s gotten so much better. He’s such an unselfish player.”
That defense made it challenging to do what the Billikens excel at: scoring off of assists and making threes. Coming into today, Saint Louis averaged nearly 20 assists per game as a team and nearly 10 made threes a game. This afternoon, they were held to eight assists and just five triples.
“Give Maryland and Kevin all the credit in the world,” Saint Louis head coach Travis Ford said. “His guys played great and were extremely prepared for us. Kevin had his team much more prepared than I had my team.”
“We got beat and that’s what it is,” Collins added. “Coach told us don’t forget about it and to look at the score and remember it.”
At the end of the day, the Terrapins were the better team from the opening tip and used their size advantage to deny the Billikens on the defensive end.
Now, here are my takeaways from the nightcap between the Canes and the Friars.
Providence head coach Ed Cooley said it best: “The better team definitely won today.”
The game was neck and neck throughout the first eight minutes, but a 27-11 run after that for Miami broke the game open for good. Junior guard Isaiah Wong led the way for the Canes as he scored a season high 18 points on 7-14 shooting.
“In the first half I saw a lot of open lanes,” Wong said. “The screens gave me a lot of open looks and open passes.”
Miami's Isaiah Wong being guarded by Providence's Noah Locke
Miami had just seven assists on 27 made field goals and had a lot of one-on-one buckets, exposing Providence on the defensive end.
It wasn’t just a typical victory for the Hurricanes, as it marked head coach Jim Larranaga’s 700th career win as a head coach. Larranaga is in the midst of his 51st year coaching in some variety and a Providence alum, so the win was extra special for him.
“The most important thing to me was being 4-0,” Larranaga said. “When you coach as long as I have (51 years) and have guys like these two (Wong and graduate student guard Jordan Miller), it's really fun.”
As for Providence, the Friars had the crowd behind them in what Cooley called “a Providence College home game,” but couldn't get the job done. Sophomore forward Bryce Hopkins led the team with 16 points on 6-8 shooting with eight rebounds.
Devin Carter attacks the rim during Saturday's loss to Miami
The Friars as a whole really struggled from three point land, with senior guard Jared Bynum going just 1-7 and the team altogether went 5-21.
“I thought at times it was men against boys,” Cooley said. “I thought their athleticism and their physicality played a big difference in the game. Their maturity and age showed.”
Luckily, The Friars don’t have to nosh on this one very long as they play again tomorrow against a Billikens team that has a similar goal they do: Don’t go 0-2 at Mohegan Sun.
As for the winners, both Maryland and Miami are off to 4-0 starts and the winner of tomorrow’s matchup has a pretty good chance to be ranked in the AP Top 25 on Monday.
All in all, tomorrow’s games in Uncasville should feature another pair of great matchups between programs with intentions on making the NCAA Tournament.
“You don’t want to be in these preseason tournaments and be 0-2,” Cooley said.