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University of Maryland Athletics

Patrick Emilian
45
Saint Peter's SP 6-6,1-2 MAAC
75
Winner Maryland MD 9-3,1-1 Big Ten
Saint Peter's SP
6-6,1-2 MAAC
45
Final
75
Maryland MD
9-3,1-1 Big Ten
Winner
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 F
Saint Peter's SP 19 26 45
Maryland MD 35 40 75

Game Recap: Men's Basketball |

No. 23 Terps Smother Saint Peter’s In 75-45 Win

COLLEGE PARK, MD -- The No. 23 Terps were dominant defensively from the opening tip, holding Saint Peter's to just 19 first half points, and cruised to a 75-45 win over the Peacocks on Thursday night in the XFINITY Center. 

The Terps had their best defensive effort in terms of fewest points allowed since beating Nebraska 60-45 on Feb. 6, 2019. Maryland held the Peacocks to just 30.4 percent shooting from the field. 

Maryland had its largest margin of victory since beating Division II Wingate by 42 (100-58) on Jan. 15, 2021. It was the largest margin against a Division I program since beating Maryland-Eastern Shore by 53 points (96-43) on Nov. 12, 2017. 

Hakim Hart, who set his career-high of 32 points against Saint Peter's in 2020 in his first career start, led the way offensively with 20 points on 7-of-8 shooting. Jahmir Young added 14 points, four assists and four rebounds. In his first career start as a Terp, Patrick Emilien notched 10 points. 

The Terps knocked down eight triples as a team, with five coming in the second half.  Maryland forced the Peacocks into 17 turnovers, equaling the most by a Terps opponent this season. 

Maryland moved to 9-3 while Saint Peter's, which played in the NCAA Elite Eight last spring, fell to 6-6. 

Willard's Take

"I did focus a lot this week on just defense..I really tried to get them back into that mindset of being aggressive, getting after it. We worked on our press a ton because we haven't been scoring, so we haven't been getting into our press. I just think it was a little bit more of just falling into the rhythm of the game and seeing the ball go in and it just went from there."

From Jahmir

"It was great for us to slow them down a bit and to impose our will. We had a good week of practice on the defensive end and the offensive end. Holding them to 14 points at the last media timeout in the first half—we did a great job."

"Just making sure our urgency was there every practice, making sure we got back to what we were doing when the season started," Young said of the team's practices the past week. "We just got after it and made sure we were sharp on both ends of the floor. I feel like we got better this past week and it really helped us get this win."

Breaking Down The Action
  • The first 10:25 of the game was a battle of runs. The Terps jumped out to a 6-0 lead behind four early points from Ian Martinez, but the Peacocks scored the next seven points to take a one-point lead. Maryland scored five of the final seven points in that span and claimed an 11-9 lead at the media timeout.
  • The Terps began to pull away thanks to swarming, full-court defense, holding the Peacocks without a point for over five minutes while Maryland went on an 8-0 run as Patrick Emilien scored two layups, bringing the lead to 19-9.
  • Maryland continued its dominant defense for the rest of the first half, holding Saint Peter's to 26.1 shooting and forcing nine turnovers through the first twenty minutes. Patrick Emilien, Jahmir Young and Hakim Hart each scored eight points in the period to lead the Terps offensively as they held a 35-19 lead heading into halftime.
  • The Terps came out of the locker room shooting the lights out from deep, making five of their first six attempts from three, including two makes from Donta Scott. The hot shooting eventually allowed Maryland to go on a 13-0 to blow the game wide open with a 59-28 lead with less than 13 minutes left to play. 
  • Hart and Young combined for 18 second half points as the Terps continued to grow their lead and kept pushing until the final buzzer.             

Double-Figure Update
  • Jahmir Young tallied 14 points, marking his 10th game in double-figures this season and 85th overall.
  • With 20 points, Hakim Hart scored in double-figures for the seventh time this season and the 32nd of his career. His career-high scoring total is 32 points which he did in 2020 against Saint Peter's in his first career start.
  • Patrick Emilien scored a season-high 10 points, his first game in double-figures this season and 28th overall.

Defense! 
  • The Terps had their best defensive effort of the season in terms of fewest points allowed, giving up just 45 points. It's the fewest points allowed by Maryland since beating Nebraska 60-45 on Feb. 6, 2019. 
  • It was the sixth time in 12 games that Maryland held its opponent under 60 points and second time under 50 points (other came in the opener when Niagara scored 49). 
  • For the game, Saint Peter's shot just 30 percent from the floor, the sixth time a Maryland foe was held to less than 40 percent from the floor for the game. 
  • The Peacocks scored just 19 points in the first half and shot just 25.0 percent in the first half, marking the fourth time a Maryland opponent was held to less than 30 percent in the first half (low was 20.0 by Western Carolina). Maryland's season low for points allowed in the first half was 15, also by Western Carolina. 
  • Maryland scored 24 points off 17 Saint Peter's turnovers including 14 points on nine miscues in the first half. Both mark season highs for the Terps.

Donta In The Record Books
  • With eight points against the Peacocks, Scott is now tied for 51st all-time in Maryland history with 1,087 career points. He is tied with Keith Gatlin.
  • With one rebound on Thursday night, he now has 566 career boards, good for 36th all-time. He is chasing Rodney Elliott and his 570 rebounds.

Notes and Nuggets
  • Ian Martinez made his second career start in 65 total games. His last start was against Michigan on Jan. 18, 2022. Martinez scored the game's first basket.
  • Patrick Emilien made his first career start as a Terp and the 44th of his career spanning three schools.
  • Maryland shot better than 50 percent in a game for the fourth time this season, hitting 53.2 percent from the floor. 
  • Maryland led by as many as 36 points in the game (71-35, 06:12, 2H). The largest lead of the season was previously 33 points against Western Carolina and Louisville.
  • Maryland's previous largest margin of victory this season was 28 against Saint Louis (95-67).
  • Don Carey led the Terrapins in rebounds (8) and assists (4), it is the first time Carey has led them in either category this season.
  • The Terps improved to 4-0 all-time against Saint Peter's - all coming in College Park.

Up Next
  • The Terps will host UMBC on Thursday, Dec. 29. That game will tip at 7 pm and can be caught on ESPNU as well as the Maryland Sports Radio Network.

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