Maryland men’s basketball cruised and led for all 40 minutes on Wednesday afternoon after defeating Bucknell, 91-67.
It was yet another balanced scoring effort in the non-conference win as the starters led the way before the bench closed it out.
Maryland jumped out to a quick 11-2 lead thanks to Selton Miguel getting hot early, ultimately the first to end up in double-figures scoring, while Bucknell generated five turnovers in the first four minutes. Maryland extended that dominant run to 20-5 to open the game in a balanced scoring effort from start to finish.
All five of Maryland’s starters hit at least one field goal in the first eight minutes, but it was the Terps’ outside shooting that stole the show after hitting nine threes in the first half, which was already good enough to tie a season-high. Maryland finished with 12 made threes on 38.7% shooting, both marking season-highs.
Maryland stretched its lead to as many as 25 points in the first half after shooting over 50% from both the field and three in the first half before stretching the lead to as many as 31 points in the closing minutes of the game.
The second half would begin the Tafara Gapare show for the first time this season after scoring ten of his 19 points in the second half, including ten points in just four minutes before closing his day with a thundering dunk. The agile forward also finished on a coast-to-coast layup after a clean Euro step gave Gapare the needed space at the rim. Gapare would finish as one of four in double figures alongside Derik Queen (15 pts), Julian Reese (14 pts) and Selton Miguel (13 pts). Wednesday marked the fifth consecutive game and sixth time this season that Queen has scored in double figures.
Gapare wasn’t the only one off the bench to make his impact felt after Jay Young tallied three blocks, the most blocks by a guard since Kevin Huerter had four in a game in 2017.
Maryland also forced 20 turnovers, the fourth time in seven games the Terps' defense has generated at least 20 turnovers in a game.
Maryland will host Alcorn State on Sunday, Nov. 31 for a noon tipoff before kicking off Big Ten play vs. Ohio State.
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