It was a sloppy opening game that the Terrapins men's basketball team probably doesn't want to mimic in the future. But at the end of the day, all that mattered was the result.
"I'm not pleased, but … we won," guard Greivis Vasquez said. "1-0."
The Terps missed their first eight shots to begin a disjointed first half, but with a stifling defense and a struggling opponent in Bucknell, they were able to come out of Comcast Center with an easy 81-52 victory to commence the season.
"The points were tough - we were kind of nervous tonight, first game, had a little jitterbugs, but having a fast break on defense really helped us a lot," said guard Adrian Bowie, who was one of four Terps with a pair of steals.
Four Terps were also in double-figures, including forward Landon Milbourne, who led the team in scoring for the first time in his career with 16 points.
The Terps entered the half up 33-17 despite shooting just 34.2 percentage from the floor. Much of that lead was a product of Bucknell's futility; in the first half, the Bison made just one of their first 18 shots, hit 25 percent of their attempts and hurt themselves with 14 turnovers.
"I thought both teams were a little nervous," Terp coach Gary Williams said. "Early, we were very impatient. We took some forced shots. We were in a hurry to score, and we thought something was wrong because we didn't have a lot of points."
But in the second half, the pace picked up as Maryland began to employ a three-quarter court press. It allowed the Terps to begin running and consequently pick up easy buckets in transition.
"The pressure worked well," guard Cliff Tucker said. "They only had one good ballhandler, so when we pressured them a lot, we had a lot of steals, and that kind of got the game going for us."
Tucker, who earned a starting spot during the last day of practice, played well in his new role, scoring 14 points and giving the Terps an offensive spark when not much would fall. He appeared nervous in the early going, missing his first three shots wildly. But after a breather on the bench, he reentered and hit four straight.
Toward the end of the first half, Tucker swiped the ball from Bucknell guard Justin Castleberry and took it to the other end of the court for a whirling layup to extend the Terps' lead by 16. The result was never really in question after that point.
Eleven Terps saw action in the first half, and each played 10 or more minutes throughout the game. All 13 roster members saw court time by the end of the blowout, as the Terps led by more than 20 points for the majority of the second half.
With 4 minutes remaining in the game, and a 26-point lead already in hand, Vasquez made a pretty dish to Milbourne for a layup and the foul. The culmination of a strong second half, Vasquez ferociously slapped his teammates' hands as he motioned and yelled to the crowd.
"It's all good when you win," Vasquez said after the game. "We just gotta get better."
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