COLLEGE PARK — The dress rehearsal is over for Maryland men’s basketball.
In their final non-Big Ten game of the 2025-26 season, the Terps used a 17-0 opening run to waltz to a 73-58 victory over visiting Old Dominion on Sunday night before an announced 13,254 at Xfinity Center.
Maryland (7-6) ended a three-game losing streak and enjoyed a positive outcome for the first time since Dec. 2 when it defeated Wagner, 89-63. Now the team will turn its attention to the conference portion of its schedule, beginning by welcoming Oregon (6-6) on Friday at 7:30 p.m. in a battle between two sides seeking their first league wins after 0-2 starts.
“I think we’ve had growth,” Terps coach Buzz Williams said. “The next 10 weeks are going to be heavier than the last 10 weeks, regardless of the health of our roster.”
Freshman point guard Darius Adams ignited the Terps by amassing 18 points, two rebounds and two assists. Redshirt freshman shooting guard Andre Mills racked up 11 points, five assists, three rebounds and two steals, and senior small forward Solomon Washington collected his first double-double since transferring from Texas A&M with 13 points and 13 rebounds.
In his first start since transferring from Washington State, junior shooting guard Isaiah Watts rewarded Williams’ trust by scoring 17 points on 6 of 7 shooting, including 4 of 5 from 3-point range — all in the first half. Watts’ output was one point shy of his season high set in an 89-82 win at Marquette on Nov. 15, while his four 3-pointers were a season best and one short of his career high achieved twice before.
Watts’ presence in the starting lineup — Maryland’s seventh different rotation of the year — was necessitated by the continuing absence of senior power forward Pharrel Payne. Payne, a Texas A&M transfer who entered the game leading the team in points per game (17.5) and rebounds (7.2), sat out his second consecutive game since injuring his right knee in the first half of a 101-83 setback to No. 2 Michigan on Dec. 13.
Adams said ending the season on a positive note “was definitely important.”
“We had things we needed to do to win this game,” he said. “We keep going over buckets that we need to do to win this game and all the Big Ten games that are coming up. We know it’s going to be a challenge for us coming up, and we know that we need to lock in even more. And we know that it’s a New Year, a new us.”
Despite some of the individual performances, the Terps demonstrated their ability to share the ball. Their 14 assists on 24 field goals were tied for the fourth-highest total this season and just two shy of tying their best established in victories over Coppin State on Nov. 3 and Marquette.
In its first contest since an 80-72 loss at No. 21 Virginia on Dec. 20, Maryland shook off what little rust that might have accumulated over its longest break of the campaign. Mills’ 3-pointer just 69 seconds into the first half ignited a 17-0 burst that was the largest in program history since Jan. 11, 2003, when that squad kicked off an 18-0 spurt in an 89-62 thumping of Florida State that was the ninth game inside Xfinity Center.
The Monarchs missed their first seven shots before sophomore guard Drew McKenna dropped a layup with 14:04 left in the first half. They then went on a 10-6 mini-run to close the gap to 23-12 with 8:12 remaining.
But the Terps responded by scoring 11 unanswered points and then ended the frame on an 11-6 burst. Their last nine points in the final 1:37 all came from Mills, who drained three consecutive 3-pointers.
Maryland enjoyed a 45-18 advantage at halftime that dwarfed its previous best halftime lead of 47-32 against Coppin State in an eventual season-opening 83-61 victory.
Watts said the game-opening run set a tone for the team.
“What worked for us was just moving the ball, sharing the ball, playing as a unit, playing as a collective,” he said. “We trust in each other, we trust in our coaches, we trust everybody from our managers to our coaches to even our athletic trainers. So it all came out in the first half. Looked good.”
For much of the second half, the Terps maintained a 20-point cushion. Old Dominion made things slightly interesting by scoring 11 unanswered points in a 2:20 span to trim the deficit to 68-56 with 93 seconds to go before Maryland held on for the victory.
Senior guard KC Shaw, who entered the game leading the Monarchs in scoring at 16.0 points per game, amassed 19 points and four rebounds. Freshman point guard Zacch Wiggins came off the bench to compile 14 points and four rebounds.
Terps fans might remember senior Caelum Swanton-Rodger, who spent his first two years at Maryland when Kevin Willard was the coach. After averaging 5.5 points and 4.9 rebounds in 34 games last winter (including 33 starts), the 7-foot, 240-pound power forward finished Sunday with more personal fouls (four) and turnovers (three) than points (zero), rebounds (zero) and blocks (two).
Old Dominion (4-10) dropped its second straight game and seventh in its last eight games. The team slipped to 1-6 against Maryland.
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