Donta Scott scored 16 points and grabbed six rebounds, and No. 12 seed Maryland cruised to a 65-51 win over No. 13 seed Rutgers in the first round of the Big Ten tournament Wednesday evening in Minneapolis.
Maryland (16-16) advanced to play No. 5 seed Wisconsin on Thursday afternoon.
Julian Reese finished with 12 points on 6-for-8 shooting and also grabbed six rebounds for the Terrapins. Jamie Kaiser Jr. and Jahmir Young added 11 points apiece.
Gavin Griffiths scored 16 points to lead Rutgers (15-17), which lost its fourth game in a row. Aundre Hyatt contributed 13 points off the bench for the Scarlet Knights.
Maryland shot 43.1 percent from the field (22 of 51) and 35 percent from beyond the arc (7 of 20). Rutgers shot only 31.1 percent overall (19 of 61) and 23.8 percent from long range (5 of 21).
The Terrapins opened the second half with five straight points to grab a 41-22 lead. Reese made a jump shot to start the second-half scoring fed Scott for a 3-pointer.
Maryland increased its lead to as many as 26 points in the second half. Scott made a jump shot to put the Terrapins ahead 62-36 with 8:28 remaining.
Rutgers never made a serious challenge the rest of the way. They closed the game on an 11-0 run.
Maryland led 36-22 at the half.
The Terrapins set the tone with a dominant start to the game. They raced to a 17-3 lead in the first five minutes.
Scott, Kaiser and DeShawn Harris-Smith made three straight 3-pointers to open the scoring for Maryland. Reese followed with a dunk to make it 11-0 before Rutgers got its first basket on a 3-pointer by Griffiths 2:58 into the game.
The Terrapins pulled ahead 32-14 on a jump shot by Kaiser Jr. with 3:50 left in the half.
Rutgers scored eight of the final 12 points of the first half to pull back within 14.
–Field Level Media