The Terrapins look to down #21 Indiana at Home.
The Maryland Terrapins square off against The Indiana Hoosiers in a Big Ten clash at Xfinity Center. The Terps are on a two game winning streak, coming off of 3 of their best performances of the year dating back to Purdue. Indiana is on a 5 game winning streak and are also playing some of their basketball as of lately. This will be a real challenge for the Terps, but being at home and playing the way they have been lately, this is a very winnable game as they find themselves looking for quality wins as we continue to approach March.
On Saturday, the Terps handled Rutgers quite well and looked once again like the Terrapin team we have been hoping for all this year. The Terps looked very promising on offense yet again and totaled 82 points. The starting lineup did their job and all of them except Reese found themselves in double digits. As a team the Terps shot 45 percent from the field and 35 percent from behind the arc, both of which are good numbers. One of their most impressive stats though, is going 24/26 from the line at 92.3 percent. Being good at free throws is something taken for granted these days, and coming down stretches it is always good to be able to convert on free throws, another promising number from the Terps.
The Hoosiers come into College Park as one of the hottest teams in College Basketball, coming in on a 5 game winning streak. Their most recent win came against Ohio State, beating them 86-70. The Hoosiers can shoot the ball, and did so very well against Ohio State, shooting 50 percent from both the field and behind the arc. Forward Trayce Jackson-Davis has been the difference maker for the Hoosiers this entire season. He leads them in points at 19.6 per game, rebounds at 10.7 per game, and blocks at 3.2 per game. As he continues this hot season, averaging a double double, it becomes pretty evident that the Hoosiers will look to him to be the facilitator in this game against the Terps today.
The formula for the Terps lately has seemed to be working and I would have to imagine they would look to repeat it today. For starters, controlling the tempo of the game is priority number one for them. Dating back to the second half of the Purdue game, the Terrapins started to play a very fast pace offense. Continuing this trend the past two games has led them to victory and a much more promising offensensive scheme. Tonight the Terps will look to do the same and continue to try to move fast and with a good tempo. Along with that, the Terrapins as of late have been playing good in the paint. Julian Reese has been a difference maker down below, along with Dontae Scott, who both will be matched up against Jackson-Davis at some point today and will have to try to keep his presence to a minimum.
The main thing for the Terps tonight is to just keep building on the momentum they have created as of late, getting hot at this point in the season is a very promising look for us Terps fans. Xfinity Center will be mobbed with students tonight, as it is the flash mob game, once again making it one of the best enough environments in all of College Basketball. The Terrapins will look to take down number 21 Indiana at 9 pm tonight on ESPN 2. Go Terps!
