College Park, MD – Maryland showed why they are the number three ranked team in the country, easily defeating Mount St. Mary’s 80 – 56. Maryland was clicking on all cylinders as they shot 66 percent going into halftime, and ended the game at an extremely efficient 58 percent.
The Mount did the best they could to keep up with Maryland. At halftime they were only down eleven at (43-32) thanks to BK Ashe carrying the load with 11 points. Ashe did his best to keep The Mount close until Maryland pulled away in the second half. Ashe was very aggressive throughout and made several pull up and step back jumpers in the face of his defender. He finished with 18 points, while also being active on the glass with even rebounds.
Gregory Graves provided a spark in the first half, showing some range for a 6’7 power forward. However, Graves faltered in the second and only finished with nine points and five rebounds. Along with Graves, Will Miller provided some offense adding 10 points on 3-of-8 shooting all from three.
For Maryland, Melo Trimble was very solid. Melo got in the lane whenever he wanted, and finished with contact as well. He provided steady ball control and showed great court vision as well. He may have only finished with two assists, but he made many correct passes that led to assists from other teammates resulting in buckets. He finished with 14 points, on 6-of-11 shooting, before he was pulled out of the game in the second half after tweaking his back after a layup.
The real star for Maryland was Jake Layman. The senior forward did a little bit of everything tonight. He finished with a stat line of 16 points, five rebounds, two three pointers, two blocks, and two steals. Layman was aggressive on offense all night, something that has not been the case in the past. He also played the passing lanes very well on defense and created several turnovers. Layman has a chance at being selected in the upcoming 2016 NBA draft, and performances like this will definitely help.
Next up for Maryland is a date with its local rival Georgetown. It will be the first time the two schools have scheduled each other since 1993. Mount St. Mary’s is traveling to Ohio State on Sunday afternoon.
Greg Walter is a Correspondent and Scout for NetScouts Basketball. You can subscribe to our RSS feed from the upper right corner of our home page, follow us on Facebook, or on twitter.
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