Maryland’s first real test of the season ended the same way too many bad starts do: with the Terps chasing, scrambling and never quite catching up.
Georgetown jumped on Maryland early and kept extending the gap in Saturday’s 86-74 crosstown win, handing Buzz Williams’ team its first loss of the season. Maryland briefly led 9-7 just over four minutes into the game, then spent the rest of the afternoon trying to dig out of a hole that only got deeper. A 22-8 Hoyas run turned that early edge into a 12-point deficit, and Georgetown eventually stretched the margin to 80-53 with five minutes left.
Maryland did finish with a 10-0 run, but by then the outcome had long been settled.
The biggest problem was the same one that has already shown up this season: the 3-point line. Maryland came out firing from deep, taking nine 3s in the first 11 minutes, but the shots weren’t falling.
Andre Mills hit the Terps’ only first-half 3-pointer at the 16:48 mark, and that was it for a long stretch. Seven different Maryland players tried a 3 in the opening half, and none of the others connected.
Even Mike McNair Jr., who was the nation’s fifth-best shooter from behind the arc last season, missed his lone first-half attempt.
After Mills’ make, Maryland missed its next 17 shots from deep. Kaden House finally ended the drought with four minutes left, but the damage had already piled up.
Georgetown, meanwhile, was carving Maryland apart from outside. The Hoyas made five of their first 10 3-point attempts and finished the game at 50% from deep with 15 makes.
Elmarko Jackson and Jaland Lowe were the main drivers, with each scoring 14 first-half points. Lowe hit four of his six 3s before halftime, while Jackson added two first-half triples as Georgetown built an eight-3-pointer opening half.
Maryland’s final line from deep told the story in full: 3-for-20, its lowest percentage in the last three seasons.
If there was one place the Terps found some resistance, it was inside, where Pharrell Payne kept them afloat. The redshirt senior went to work early against a pair of Georgetown 7-footers and was Maryland’s most reliable scorer in the first half.
He grabbed four offensive rebounds before halftime and turned that effort into points, finishing the opening 20 minutes with a team-high 10 points on 5-for-7 shooting. All five of those makes came at the rim.
Payne kept pressing after the break, too. Maryland’s first possession of the second half ended with him at the free-throw line, and he drew five fouls in the final 20 minutes.
He made eight free throws over his last 13 minutes on the floor and finished with a game-high 18 second-half points. Payne missed only four shots all game, and seven of his eight rebounds helped create second-chance chances for Maryland.
“That’s one of our team pillars is rebounding,” Payne said. “I feel like we take a lot of pride in going to the offensive glass as well as trying to keep a high percentage of defensive rebounds.”
The foul situation changed sharply after halftime, too. Maryland had been relatively clean in the first half, with Mills and Bishop Boswell the only players to pick up two fouls by the break.
But the second half got messy fast. The Terps committed four fouls on Georgetown’s opening possession after halftime, and McNair was called for three of them.
He finished scoreless in 22 minutes and helped put Georgetown in the bonus early.
That mattered because the Hoyas kept attacking, even while their free throws weren’t especially efficient. Georgetown attempted 19 second-half free throws and made 57.9% of them, but the bigger issue for Maryland was the extra possessions it surrendered.
Payne and McNair both ended with four fouls, which forced Williams to stay with four-guard looks. Georgetown took advantage by collecting six offensive rebounds in the second half and turning them into 11 points.
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