By: Aaron Robinson
It was a record breaking night in College Park, MD as multiple Terps touched career milestones. Eric Ayala set a new career high with 24 points and he added eight rebounds to lead the Terps to a 79-71 win over Nebraska on Wednesday evening.
Senior Darryl Morsell, who started his 100th game on Wednesday, also became the 57th member in school history to score 1,000 points.
“Growing up in Baltimore, right down the street, being able to score a thousand points at my neighborhood school… it’s a blessing”
And fittingly, Morsell’s thousandth point came on a play where he tipped the ball from Nebraska’s leading scorer Teddy Allen. Galin Smith gathered the loose ball and then rewarded Morsell with an outlet pass as Morsell laid the ball in on the other end.
Morsell is the team’s best defensive player and is frequently tasked with shutting down the oppositions’ best scorer. Most recently, Morsell held Minnesota’s Marcus Carr, who averages just over 19 points per game on 41% shooting, to nine points on 4-15 shooting in a Maryland win.
But according to Maryland head coach Mark Turgeon, Morsell has outperformed all expectations of the player he thought he was signing four years ago.
“When I signed him, I didn’t think he was going to be a thousand point scorer,” Turgeon said. “ I thought he was going to be a great defender, tough guy, I thought five or six hundred points.”
Turgeon credited Morsell’s work ethic for the strides that he has made as an offensive player.
“For him to get to a thousand is amazing, it shows you how hard he’s worked on his three point shot, on his mid-range… but he’s going to go down in the top ten or fifteen or twenty defender also,” Turgeon said.
Morsell’s defense has been a big reason why the Terps have now strung together their first three game win streak of the Big Ten season.
Another reason, and honestly the biggest, is the play of their backcourt tandem of Eric Ayala and Aaron Wiggins.
For Ayala, tonight marked his sixth straight game in double figures, setting a new career mark for the junior from Wilmington, Delaware.
“He’s really a good scorer, he got his stepbacks going, turnaround jumpers going, he was really feeling it,” Turgeon said.
For his backcourt mate, Aaron Wiggins, the Greensboro, North Carolina native scored 22 points and added five rebounds tonight, marking his fourth straight game scoring at least 17 points, and his sixth in the last seven games.
During this three game win streak, Wiggins is averaging 20 points per game.
When asked what has sparked this increase in production as of late, Turgeon said this.
“We’ve changed our offense, which gives him more freedom, he’s good at reading screens and he’s being more aggressive.”
Tonight in the first half, the junior backcourt accounted for 30 of Maryland’s 40 points, carrying the load for an offense that otherwise did not have much going.
“Him and Eric in that first half, they were spectacular, and we needed it because we weren't really guarding at a high level,” Turgeon said.
Jairus Hamilton, a junior transfer from Boston College also had his best two-game stretch in conference play as the forward averaged 14 points per game in two contests against the Huskers.
Hamilton provided much needed scoring off a Terps bench that coming into this past weekend, had not given them much. Hamilton also brings a unique skill to stretch the floor, as he is often matched up with opposing centers and power forwards.
“He’s a spark coming off the bench,” Wiggins said. “His ability to make three’s, it stretches out the defense because of our small ball lineup, they have to play their four or five man to guard him… he’s big for us.”
Over their last three games, Maryland is averaging over 71 points per game on just under 48% shooting from the floor. During that same stretch, they are holding teams to 60 points on 33% shooting from the floor.
For a team that normally defends well, the shotmaking of late could give this Maryland team a new dimension, it hasn’t yet seen.
“When our offense is clicking, and guys are playing comfortable and confident and making shots, our team is really dangerous,” Wiggins said.
Wednesday night’s win moves Maryland to 13-10 overall and 7-9 in Big Ten play, with four games remaining. The Terps will travel to Piscataway, New Jersey on Sunday to try and earn a split against a Scarlet Knights team that defeated Maryland by 14 here at Xfinity Center in mid December.
How can the Terps grab their fourth win in a row on Sunday?
“We got to be locked in defensively… that’s our biggest priority,” Wiggins said. “We just have to make sure we’re clicking on offense, and continuing to move the ball and move our bodies the way we’ve been our last couple games because that’s what’s working for us.”