November 19, 1996
Booth's 17 Lead Maryland Past Court Authority In Men's Basketball Exhibition
COLLEGE PARK, Md. -- Senior forward Keith Booth scored a game high 17 points and sophomores Laron Profit and Obinna Ekezie added 16 each to lead Maryland to a 93-69 exhibition victory over Court Authority tonight at Cole Field House. The game was the final pre-season test for the Terps who open the regular season as they play host to Howard University on November 26. Maryland won both of its pre-season exhibition games.
The Terps broke the game open after the midway point of the first half as they outscored the visitors, 30-12, in the later stages of the first half. Booth scored eight of his 11 first half points during the span and while junior Sarunas Jasikevicius scored seven of his nine first half points during a four minute span.
Maryland continued to increase its lead in the second half as it held as much as a 24-point bulge during the half. Profit led all second half scorers with 10 points while Ekezie scored eight and grabbed three of his game high 11 rebounds.
Maryland shot a stellar 61.3 percent from the field during the game. Each of the Terps five starters scored in double figures and shot better than 50 percent from the field. For the game, 10 of the 11 Terps players who took at least one shot finished at better than 50 percent form the field. Maryland's defense limited Court Authority to 43.9 percent shooting from the field.
Court Authority was led Warren Peebles 14 points and three rebounds and Eric English who also added 14 points and three rebounds.
"This is the time of the year where we try to develop a way to play. We want to be a better half court team defensively."
"We hope that we are seeing signs that we can be a very good team. We are passing the ball very well right now, guys are stepping up, and everyone is playing hard."
"Keith is Keith, he has to be our leader. He is our senior and we have to be an eight or nine man team. We cannot afford to not be."
Regarding Brian Watkins: "Probably one of the most important things needed in devlopment is competition. He will be alright the more he plays."
CT AUTH MIN FG- FGA FT- FTA REB AST PTS
Wall 26 2- 5 0- 0 5 1 4
Plondke 30 2- 6 2- 2 3 1 6
Wilson 21 5- 8 1- 2 2 2 11
Peebles 26 4- 11 4- 4 3 0 14
English 29 5- 10 2- 2 3 2 14
Sherod 24 3- 4 0- 0 0 2 9
Harvey 16 1- 2 0- 0 3 2 2
Boyd 15 3- 10 0- 0 0 0 7
Downs 10 0- 1 1- 2 2 1 1
Jefferson 3 0- 0 1- 2 0 0 1
TOTALS 200 25- 57 11- 14 21 11 69
MARYLAND MIN FG- FGA FT- FTA REB AST PTS
Profit 25 7- 12 1- 1 6 6 16
Booth 31 6- 11 5- 8 2 2 17
Elliott 25 4- 7 3- 3 4 0 11
Ekezie 29 7- 11 2- 4 11 0 16
Jasikevicus 28 6- 10 0- 1 6 7 14
Stokes 19 3- 3 0- 0 2 4 6
Watkins 16 2- 4 0- 0 3 1 4
Kovarik 16 1- 1 1- 2 1 3 3
Hite 5 1- 1 0- 0 2 1 2
Raydo 2 0- 0 0- 0 0 0 0
Fields 2 0- 0 2- 2 0 0 2
Smith 1 1- 1 0- 0 0 0 1
Hahn 1 0- 1 0- 0 0 0 0
TOTALS 200 38- 62 14- 21 39 24 93
Halftime: Maryland 48, Court Authority 29
Officials: Rote, Hill, Lombard
Attendance: 5,619
