The 25th ranked Maryland Terrapins rallied late to beat the pesky American Eagles 62-56 much to the delight of the season-opening crowd at Xfinity Center.
The Terps, (1-0) with a lot of new faces, played tight and were trailing 47-43 with 7:34 to play.
But they still have Preseason All-Big Ten star guard Melo Trimble and he came to the rescue as part of a late 7-0 run.
Maryland freshman Kevin Huerter, a four-star recruit from New York where he was the Gatorade Player of the Year, showed some poise and hit a big three-pointer, with an assist by Trimble, with 3:03 to play to give his team a 55-49 advantage.
The cross-town Eagles cut the lead to 57-54 with 1:37 to play in the game but Trimble answered with a layup to seal the deal.
Trimble led all players with 22 points, four assists and three rebounds. He scored eight of the Terps first nine points while starting at shooting guard for the first time in his career.
That is because local freshman Anthony Cowan, a four-star All-Met recruit from Bowie and St. John’s College High School, was responsible for bringing the ball up court as the point guard.
He finished his first game as a Terrapin with 12 points and nine rebounds. He hit two free throws with 22 seconds to go to give Maryland a 61-54 lead.
Maryland, with four of five starters from last year’s team playing professionally, started two freshman, Cowan and Huerter, who finished with six points and six rebounds.
Senior big man Damonte Dodd, Junior Jared Nickens and Trimble rounded out the starting five for the 2016-2017 season opener.
Both Dodd and Nickens struggled. Dodd missed some shots from close range and finished with three points and two assists while Nickens, who has shown to be a dead-eye long distance shooter, was 0-4 from three-point range and finished with no points and one rebound.
Meanwhile, senior transfer L.G Gill from Duquesne,was a spark off the bench as he scored 11 points and collected six rebounds.
The Maryland offense, still searching for its identity, was not at its best, committing 19 turnovers while shooting 39 percent from the field including going 4 for 14 from beyond the arc.
Fortunately, they made up for it by going 18 of 25 from the free throw line and out rebounding the Eagles 44 to 22.
With Trimble supplying most of the offense the Terrapins had nearly no inside game and as a result were behind 23-18 with 4:14 to go in the first half.
They finally found a spark in Cowan who scored eights points as part of a 13-2 run to end the half and take a 31-25 lead at the break.
In the second half the Terps could never pull away from the Eagles and their bench was cheering when American took a 45-43 lead with 8:01 to go.
But the Newcomers would not be denied as Gill, Cowan and Huerter helped Trimble down the stretch to set up the exciting finish and secure the first win of the season.
American was led in scoring by Mark Gasperini who had 14 points. Sa’eed Nelson chipped in with 12 points and two rebounds.
Charlie Jones came off the bench to lead the team with six rebounds, three assists and two points for the (0-1) Eagles.
