The Maryland Terrapins, behind exquisite guard play, vanquished the VMI Keydets, 95-77 at Xfinity Center.
VMI (2-4) had no one taller than 6’7″ so the Terrapins were able to drive to the basket for the bulk of their buckets
. Maryland transfer redshirt-senior guard Richaud Pack had a Terp-career high and game-high 22 points to go along with seven rebounds, three assists and one steal. He was 10-14 from the field, and scored mainly on layups.
Freshman guard Dion Wiley, who was starting his first game of the season, had a career-high 19 points on 8-12 shooting and drove the lane for most of his points.
Point guard Melo Trimble also had 19 points and was a perfect 8-8 from the field. He also had four assists and three steals. Maryland (7-0) forward Jake Layman also had 19 points and a team-high nine rebounds.
With a distinct height advantage, Maryland 7-1 freshman forward Michal Cekovsky had a career-high 10 points on 5-6 shooting which were mainly on dunk shots. He suffered a sprained ankle and left the game only to return later. He also collected six rebounds and had three blocked shots.
The Keydets were able to stay in the game by shooting 42 three-pointers. They only made 12, four in the second half, but it was good enough to stay with the Terrapins in the first half, and they only trailed 49-45 at the break.
After a three-pointer by VMI’s Tim Marshall made the score 55-53, Maryland went on a 13-0 run, finished off by a Layman 3-pointer which gave his team some breathing room and a 68-53 lead with 12:11 to play in the game.
VMI never recovered and the Terrapins were able to conduct a layup drill while building an 18-point lead at 77-59 with 8:11 to play in the contest. The Terps had 15 layups in the second half which allowed them to shoot 37-64 for the game, a .578 percentage from the floor.
The Keydets were led in scoring by Craig Hinton who had a game-high 23 points including going 6-6 from three point range. Guard QJ Peterson added 18 points and a team-high nine rebounds to go along with four assists and one steal in a losing effort for the Keydets.
