The Maryland Terrapins, behind 24-points from freshman Melo Trimble survived a nail-bitter against the Manmouth Hawks, winning 61-56 at Xfinity Center.
Maryland was playing without their leading scorer and senior leader Dez Wells, who is sidelined for four weeks with a broken wrist suffered in the Iowa State game. The Terrapins needed Trimble to sink eight straight free throws in the closing seconds to secure their sixth win of the season.
Without Wells the Terrapins (6-0) had their lowest offensive output of the season and went 17-45 from the field, and in the tense second half scored one basket during one six-minute stretch and another five minute stretch to allow the Hawks to stay within striking distance.
Meanwhile, Manmouth (2-3) was clutch down the stretch and nearly pulled off the upset.
After the Terrapin’s Jared Nickens (eight points) sank a 3-pointer to give Maryland a 50-40 lead with 4:53 to play, the Hawks just would not fly away. Instead they went on a 14-7 run to make the score 57-54 with 34 seconds to go. After a Terps timeout, Hawk Deon Jones made a jumper making the score 57-56 with 20 seconds left to play in the contest.
From there the Hawks missed two 3-pointer and Trimble hit his free throws to secure the victory.
In the first half Maryland built a 16-point lead with two Jake Layman free throw shots with 2:02 to play in the half. With a sign of things to come, the Hawks fought back. They ended the half with two 3-pointers cutting the Terrapin lead to 32-22 at the break.
The Terps lost Wells but got forward Evan Smotrycz back from a foot injury. He led the team in rebounding with six and also scored four points including a crucial layup in the final minutes of action. Terps forward Layman added 14 points and collected four rebounds. Freshman 7-1 forward Michal Cekovsky scored four points, snagged five rebounds and had one blocked shot.
The Terps did get it done on the defensive end limiting the Hawks to 37 percent shooting including hitting only two of ten three pointers in the second half.
Manmouth was led by Jones and Max Dileo who both scored 11 points. Brice Kofane shared a team-high five rebounds and also had four blocked shots. Justin Robinson scored nine points, grabbed five rebounds, had four assists and two steals in a losing effort for the Hawks.
