Haynie: Terps And Georgetown Play A Doozy
On Tuesday night, the Maryland Terrapins and Georgetown Hoyas played a scintillating basketball game at the XFINITY Center in front of 17,950 fans and a national television audience. The two teams, meeting in College Park for the first time since 1973, performed as though they were playing in an NCAA Tournament contest.
In the end, it was Maryland who emerged victorious on the court 75-71. But we were all winners on an evening in which a rivalry was renewed.
The Hoyas, who lost their season opener--at home--to Radford, came to College Park with a purpose and certainly we not intimidated by Maryland's No. 3 national ranking. Georgetown scored the game's first nine points to let everyone know that they were there to win.
The Terps made a few runs of their own in a first half that had four ties and six lead changes and finished even at 33-33.
Georgetown's Isaac Copeland nailed a jumper with 5:47 left in the second half to give the Hoyas a 61-54 lead and forced Maryland coach Mark Turgeon to call a timeout. Turgeon's team was on the ropes and he knew it.
To their credit, the Terps answered, led by their star Melo Trimble. Trimble's 3-pointer tied the score at 61-61 with 3:57 remaining. After the teams traded hoops and were even at 68-68, it was a former Duke Blue Devil who provided the late-game drama.
Rasheed Sulaimon buried a 3-pointer with 1:20 left to give Maryland the lead for good.
Even though it was only the second game of the season for both teams, it had all of the intensity of a matchup in March.
The Hoyas are better than their 0-2 record and will be a force in the Big East. For Maryland, it was the first of many hits they will take in 2015-16.
As a highly-regarded team, they will be getting everyone's "A" game all season long.
