Notre Dame Fighting Irish vs Maryland Terrapins Match Player Stats On Dec 04, 2019

Jalen "Stix" Smith had 15 points and a career-high 16 rebounds to lead No. 3 Maryland to a 72-51 win over Notre Dame in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge on Wednesday in College Park, Md.

The Terrapins improved to 9-0 for the first time since the 1998-99 season but hadn't had any truly significant wins until beating Marquette to claim the Orlando Invitational title on Sunday, and now this one over Notre Dame (6-2).

Eric Ayala added 14 points, Aaron Wiggins 11 and defensive ace Darryl Morsell 10 for Maryland.

John Mooney led the Fighting Irish with 17 points and 12 rebounds, and Prentiss Hubb chipped in 13 points.

Maryland started slowly against a pesky 2-3 Notre Dame zone, but once the Terrapins found the range, they started rolling behind a great defensive effort. They held the Fighting Irish to 29 percent shooting (18 of 62), forced 10 turnovers and recorded 10 blocked shots, five by Smith, matching his career best.

Notre Dame led 7-2 at 16:34 when Mooney drained a 3-pointer. The Terrapins hit just four of their first 19 attempts and missed their first 10 3-point tries, but Wiggins' free throw broke a 13-13 tie at 5:49 as part of a 10-0 run. Ayala had seven straight points in that stretch. Wiggins' two-hand follow dunk of his own miss sent Maryland into the half ahead 32-20.

The Terrapins hit eight of their last nine shots in the first half, including seven in a row. Notre Dame shot just 8-for-28 (28.6 percent) against a tenacious Maryland defense and turned the ball over seven times in falling behind late in the half.

The Terrapins pushed the lead to 40-22 early in the second half when Morsell scored inside at 17:30. The Irish never got closer than 11 points after that, which came when Dane Goodwin hit a 3-pointer to make it 42-31 at 15:37.

The Terrapins open Big Ten Conference play Saturday at home against Illinois. Notre Dame, which fell in an early-season ACC game at North Carolina, hosts Boston College in the Fighting Irish's conference home opener on Saturday.

--Field Level Media