COLLEGE PARK, Md. –– Maryland (2-0) shot 75 percent from the field in the second half to pull away from the Navy (1-1) men's basketball team, 82-52, Friday afternoon at the XFINITY Center in College Park, Md.
 
"They (Maryland) are a good basketball team," said Navy head coach Ed DeChellis.  "They just shot the ball really well.  For us to come in here and do something special, we have to play almost perfect.
 
"They are a top-tier Big Ten team."
 
Navy went toe-to-toe with Maryland, which shared the 2020 Big Ten regular season title, for most of the first half.  The Mids held an 18-17 lead with 9:53 left before halftime.  A Cam Davis (Sr., Battlefield, Mo.) jumper would soon tie the game at 20 with just over eight minutes remaining.  The Terrapins scored the next 10 points to take a 30-20 lead and went into halftime nursing a 32-25 advantage.
 
Navy had made nine of its 19 field goal attempts in the game through the Davis jumper that knotted the score, but closed the half by missing eight of its 10 attempts over the final eight minutes of the stanza.
 
Maryland made just one more field goal attempt than Navy (12-11) in the first half, and the Mids held a 3-1 edge in three-point field goals made.  However, the Terrapins were 7-7 from the foul line in the first half and did not send the Mids to the charity stripe. 
 
Maryland shot an impressive 60 percent from the floor in the first 20 minutes of the game.  The Terrapins improved upon that success rate in the early part of the second half as they were 4-5 from the field –– 2-2 from three-point range –– in taking a 42-28 lead less than three minutes into the frame.
 
"I thought we played pretty good for the first 20 minutes," said DeChellis.  "Then the first four minutes of the second half were really important to us.  We came out and missed a layup, which was important as all of those shots add up.  Then our turnovers in the second half led to transition baskets for them."
 
Navy closed to within 11 points at 47-36 with 11:41 remaining.  Maryland answered by scoring eight points over its next three possessions in a span of 65 seconds to take a 57-38 lead and break the game open for good.
 
DeChellis began to substitute freely from there as the Mids are slated to be back on the XFINITY Center floor 22 hours after the conclusion of today's game to face Mount St. Mary's.  Navy's starting five logged just 91 minutes of court time today –– including just 33 minutes in the second half –– and 10 players received at least 10 minutes of playing time.
 
Davis scored 10 points to be the lone Mid to reach double figures.  All 15 Navy players appeared in the game and 11 of them scored.
 
Maryland was 18-24 from the field in the second half to end the game with an overall mark of 68.2 percent.  Navy was 22-55 from the floor in the game (40%).  The Terrapins also held a slight 8-6 edge in triples made and were 14-19 from the foul line in contrast to the 2-4 effort by the Mids.
 
"Defensively," said DeChellis, "they (Maryland) were really good.  They got into us.  We are not used to seeing that kind of length and quickness.  I thought we had some open shots, but they turned out to not be open as they closed really quickly."
 
Navy will play its third game in four days Saturday when the Mids face Mount St. Mary's at 3 p.m. The game can be viewed live and for free on the Mount St. Mary's Athletics YouTube channel.