The Maryland Terrapins mauled Mount St. Mary’s 68-53 in their 2023-2024 season debut before 14,044 fans and an excited student section at the Xfinity Center.
Maryland (1-0) who now has a 47-game home opener winning streak, led for all but 13 seconds in the game and were led by Pre-Season All-Big Ten big man Julian Reese who used his size advantage to shoot 8/11 from the floor and score a game high 18 points while collecting eight rebounds.
For Terp fans this was also the debut of highly touted Four-star freshman DeShawn Harris-Smith and he lived up to the hype.
As the first freshman to start for Maryland since the 2018-2019 opener, he finished 4/6 from the floor with 12 points and four rebounds as well as two assists and two steals.
Maryland’s other Pre-Season All Big-Ten player Jahmir Young finished with 12 points, five rebounds, four assists, three steals and two blocked shots.
Donta Scott, back for his senior year scored nine points and corralled two rebounds.
Another Maryland Four-Star freshman Jamie Kaiser Jr. known for his outside shooting, hit his first three-pointer and finished with five points and two rebounds. Indiana transfer Jordan Geronimo was in the starting lineup and finished with two points and five rebounds.
After a Young dunk with 8:04 to go in the first half made the score 18-12 the Terps went on an 11-4 run and a Reese jumper made the score 29-16 with 1:47 to go before the half.
Harris-Smith had 10 first half points helping his team lead 33-19 at the break.
The Terps led the rest of the way and had their biggest lead at 52-30 with 10:14 to play in the game.
The Mount put up a good fight and closed the gap to 12 points at 61-49 with 2:28 to go but the Terps were just too much for them.
Maryland shot 49 percent from the field while holding Mount St. Mary’s to 36 percent shooting from the floor. The Terps led the rebounding battle 36-33.
You could tell it was the first game for both teams as they combined to go five for 28 from three-point range.
Maryland was 17 for 25 from the free throw line and the Mount went nine for 12 from the charity stripe.
Maryland had six assists to seven for Mount St. Mary’s and the Terps had 15 turnovers compared to 14 for the Mount.
Josh Reaves led the Mount with 10 points and Dakota Leffew finished with eight points, two rebounds and two assists.
They were led in rebounding by George Tinsley who finished with seven in a losing effort for the (0-1) Mount.
