COLLEGE PARK — Freshman guard Melo Trimble has not made a field goal in his past two games, but coach Mark Turgeon didn't appear too concerned following Wednesday night's 64-58 victory over Penn State at Xfinity Center.
Trimble missed all five of his shots from the field after going 0-for-8 in a disappointing performance at Ohio State, but this time he distributed the ball well and finished with a career-high eight assists, which Turgeon saw as another step in his development as a complete player.
"I thought it was great,'' Turgeon said. "At the start of the second half, we did a lot to get Melo the ball and it was to score, but every time he tried to go somewhere, there were two guys there. So, he made the right decisions, our big guys finished and got fouled, which was good to see."
Trimble's unselfish approach was a key factor in forward Jon Graham's career-high 16 points against the team he left to come to Maryland. Teammate Jake Layman watched Trimble move the ball to the weak spots in the Penn State defense underneath and applauded his evolving ability to adjust his game to the situation on the floor.
"He's learning now that if he's not scoring he's got to help us other ways," Layman said.
Trimble has scored a total of seven points over the past two games after scoring in double figures in all but one of his previous 21 games, but Wednesday night's performance bore no resemblance to his tough night at Ohio State, which featured just three points and one assist.
"I was happy for Melo,'' Turgeon said. "He'll get his shooting back in gear. We've got to get more shots. We were better offensively tonight than we've been. We were a little bit more efficient, except for turnovers. We've done well not turning the ball over, so hopefully that was just rust from not playing and we'll continue to get better offensively."