Sophomore Andre Mills picked up where he left off at last season’s end, recording his second career double-double and helping Maryland overcome a sluggish start to beat Bucknell, 96-67, on the opening night of college basketball season around the country.
“I thought the energy was great. There was a lot of first game jitters, said Maryland coach Buzz Williams. “Their zone caused us problems. We were prepared for it. We didn’t execute very well, but we were just a little sped up at times. Not from malicious thoughts or actions. Just a lot of first game stuff. Not all of it bad.”
Mills scored 22 points on 8-of-12 shooting and pulled down 11 rebounds, contributing to Maryland’s overwhelming plus-32 differential on the glass, 54-32. Freshman Kaden House scored 14, including a 6-for-6 performance from the foul line, while center Pharrel Payne added 13. Four of Maryland’s five starters finished in double figures, with D.J. Wagner and Tomislav Buljan adding 10 each.
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“My workouts are being more efficient. Not spending like two hours in there, just 45 minutes doing the same thing, same reps, game plan prep of what I’m gonna get the most of,” Mills said “I think a lot of people probably don’t believe in my three ball as well, or as much. So I have it open a lot, and I feel like once I hit a couple, it starts to open up the rest of it. But definitely heavy on efficiency.”
Bucknell was paced by Aleksander Pachucki, who led all scorers with 23, with 21 of his points coming on seven made 3-pointers. The win is the Terrapins’ 13th straight in a season opener and improves them to 10-0 all time against the Bison. Maryland’s 96 points were also the most in the first game of a season in 16 years.
“I do like the versatility that we have. I do like that we can potentially play in various ways, offensively and defensively. I’m not quite comfortable yet with what that grouping or those rotations would be, depending upon how we want to play,” Williams said.
Maryland looked rusty in multiple facets early, perhaps typical of this new age of college basketball with retooled and reloaded rosters that haven’t played much together. First-half performances from the floor (38%) and foul line (66%) reflected that before the Terrapins flipped the script in the second half, shooting 55% and 70%, respectively.
“Just encouraged by who they are and the togetherness that they want to play with, and that they’re trying to do what we’re asking them to do,” Williams said.
Mills paced Maryland early with four points and two rebounds in the first four minutes. A 1-of-10 stretch from the floor for Maryland allowed Bucknell to cut the lead to 14-12.
But the Bison ran into foul trouble quickly, racking up seven through the first 10 minutes and putting Maryland into the double bonus for the final five of the half. That included three players — Jayden Williams, Luke Soden and Luca Soroa Schaller — all tallying three fouls each.
Maryland took advantage amid an otherwise sluggish 38% shooting performance in the half, rattling off a 21-5 run across the final seven minutes to lead 44-30 at halftime. Rebounds helped the Terrapins keep their edge, to the tune of a 25-15 advantage and 13-4 on the offensive glass.
“We have not done a good job on the defensive glass, and we were much more aware of what to do when the ball was on the ground and on the rise,” Williams said. “Our execution and the level of physicality we played with was much better.”
A 6-0 Maryland run early in the second half punched the lead up to 20, 54-34. The lead stretched to as big as 29 on the back of freshman Baba Oladotun’s first two field goals, both layups, of his college career. The five-star from Silver Spring looked sluggish in his initial action after the 7-minute mark of the first half, but eventually settled in to finish with seven points and four rebounds in 19 minutes of action.
“Do I think that his ceiling is ultra high, for sure? But I don’t want to coach him for who he is today. I want to coach him and the rest of our team with vision on who they’re going to be a month from today, two months from today,” Williams said. “And the physicality of the game when you’re 17, no matter who the team you’re playing is, is going to be different.”
Next, Maryland renews its rivalry with Georgetown on Saturday night at Capital One Arena in the District, the second of a four-game series between the Terrapins and Hoyas, a game Mills called “personal” after losing to Georgetown last year.
“I think we rebounded the ball really to our standard. We just gotta, we gotta get more comfortable with each other in our rotations,” Mills said. “Think that everybody kind of knows the right spots and where to be. Think that we’re just not comfortable with each other in that regard just yet. But I know that everybody knows what they’re doing.”
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