Maryland’s Women's and Men's Basketball Team start off the season with wins
Feature photo courtesy of Maryland Athletics.
Maryland’s basketball teams are starting off the season with great momentum after winning against Albany and Stony Brooke. The women's team, who played at the Xfinity Center last Friday, beat Albany Great Danes, 91-58. Winning against Stony Brooke the same day, the men’s team closed the game at 71-61.
The women’s team, now 1-0, had a troubling first quarter against Albany. After losing their top three scorers, Brionna Jones, Shatori Walker Kimbrough and Destiny Slocum, from last year, the Terrapins had a slow start. By the second half the game was a crushing defeat. Six players from the women’s team had double doubles, including junior forward Brianna Fraser scoring 14 points and grabbing ten rebounds. Along with her, returning senior and sophomore guards Kristen Confroy and Blair Watson kept the offense grounded with a total of 30 combined points.
With this first home win, the women are able to correct their mistakes before they play the number four team and National Champions Southern Carolina.
Like the girls, the men’s team also suffered a great loss of a valuable teammate, their former leading scorer Melo Trimble, which pushed the Maryland men to step up and beat the odds. The men’s team created a lot of attention with 2018 NBA Draft prospect sophomore forward Justin Jackson who was the third leading scorer in Friday’s game. With the 15-point win against Stony Brook, Maryland showed no hesitation. With sophomore guard Anthony Cowan Jr., freshman forward Bruno Fernando, and Jackson, the men were able to complete the task and secure the win. Cowan scored 15 points along with Jackson who scored 11 points and 14 rebounds making Friday night his third career double double. Fernando scored 10 points, having his first career bucket the highlight alley-oop.
The men’s team also won against University of Maryland, Eastern Shore Sunday night, beating the Hawks 96-43 on their way to a 2-0 start. The last time the two teams faced each other was on December 12, 2015, which Maryland won 77-56. The last home opener for the Terrapins against UMES was in 1988, defeating them 97-53. The men’s team did damage again Sunday night with four players, Cowan, senior guard Jared Nickens, red-shirt junior guard Dion Wiley, and freshman guard Darryl Morsell, scoring in the double digits.
Cowan was one rebound away from having his first career double double ending the night with 16 points and nine rebounds. Wiley, who finished the night with 14 points, beat his season-high last year with 13 points against Jackson State. As a whole, the men’s team scoring 96 points were the most points scored since their 97-point outing in last year’s Big Ten Tournament against Nebraska.
With these two wins under their belt, the men’s team have to prepare for their big game against Butler on November 15.