COLLEGE PARK — Darryl Morsell watched as Minnesota forward Gabe Kalscheur’s first shot of a one-and-one hit the front of the rim and Aaron Wiggins grabbed the rebound.
Wiggins passed to Anthony Cowan Jr., who made his way up the court with under 10 seconds remaining. Morsell stayed back, with No. 9 Maryland down two and the ball in its senior leader’s hands. Morsell saw Daniel Oturu block Cowan’s path to the lane and when he picked up his dribble, Morsell started making his way to the Terps’ side of the court.
As Cowan passed back to Wiggins on the wing, Morsell finally crossed halfcourt and held out his hands for the ball, multiple feet behind the 3-point line. Wiggins found Morsell, who immediately released his shot and “the rest was history,” as Morsell described it.
Morsell rattled in a deep, go-ahead 3-pointer to give Maryland a 74-73 win over Minnesota Wednesday night, completing a 17-point comeback. The moment was just another sign of the strides the junior guard has made this season.
“He’s not shy about shooting it. He’s not afraid to shoot it,” coach Mark Turgeon said after the game.
That it wasn’t Cowan, who has hit big shot after big shot for Maryland this season, or even Wiggins, the team’s best pure shooter, but Morsell, a career 27% 3-point shooter, that delivered the heroics was an extra form of gratification for the entire team.
“I work on a lot of stuff,“ said Morsell, who is shooting a career-high 35% on 3s this season. “I work out at night shooting the ball with one of our grad assistants, [Brenton Petty]. I work out with [assistant] coach [Orlando Ransom]. He has me doing late-clock stuff all the time. Just have faith in it.”
Wednesday was just another showcase of Morsell’s offensive development. Earlier in the month, he recorded back-to-back games with at least six assists despite not being a primary ball-handler.
“I’m a huge Morsell fan. He’s just going to give you all the dirty work, every single night,” Northwestern coach Chris Collins said after Morsell recorded 13 points, seven rebounds and seven assists in a 76-67 win for the Terps on Feb. 18.
After the performance, Turgeon complimented Morsell further, saying he made the “biggest jump” out of any player this season in regards to limiting turnovers. It was a full-circle moment for Morsell, who met with Turgeon late last season to discuss the Baltimore native’s ball security.
Turgeon’s message was clear in the one-on-one sitdown.
“‘Take care of the ball.’ He wasn’t going to play me if I wasn’t going to be able to take care of the ball,” Morsell said.
”I don’t know if it’s something about this time of the year, but I’m just trying to take care of the ball, because I know we’re difficult to beat if we don’t turn the ball over.”
As a freshman, Morsell averaged 2.2 turnovers per game. That number decreased to 1.6 per game as a sophomore and has bumped back up to 2.2 as a junior, but advanced metrics show a more efficient player (career-high 17.0 assist percentage) who has been asked to do more, particularly in conference play.
“It’s crazy, it used to be three or four turnovers,“ Turgeon said. “He’s turned into this player that’s totally bought into what he has to do. They don’t guard him, and he still figures out how to get in the paint and makes plays for himself and make plays for everybody else.
“It’s really cool, because you coach guys and watch him get better. And to see what he’s done, last year around this time, I was like, ‘Dang, I don’t know if this is going to work.’ He kept turning the ball over. Live ball turnovers. And to see where he is a year from now, what he’s doing, is really good.”
Morsell’s contributions on offense, in addition to consistently matching up with the opposing team’s best perimeter scorer, bode well for a team atop the Big Ten standings and with Final Four aspirations.
“When they start knocking shots down — they’ve been doing that at a higher clip of late — as that continues and if it continues into the NCAA tournament, there’s nobody out there they cannot beat,” ESPN college basketball analyst Jay Bilas said Friday, ahead of Maryland hosting ESPN’s “College GameDay.”
Morsell’s greatest skill to the Terps remains his tough defense. And with Maryland closing the gap in Minnesota’s lead on Wednesday, Morsell picked off a pass and dashed the other way for a fastbreak dunk to cut the deficit to four. Morsell’s defensive efforts stood out to his teammates and that carried over into their belief he would be able to hit a big shot when they needed it most.
“Darryl had a moment in the game where he just picked it up. And I could see he got into a zone,” sophomore guard Eric Ayala said Friday. “It was defensively. And I knew if he stayed in that zone that he was going to make a play for us. He was knocking the ball out of bounds countless times during that game before that shot. I just knew he was going to do something to make a play for us that would help us win that game.”
MICHIGAN STATE@NO. 9 MARYLAND
Saturday, 8 p.m.
TV: ESPN Radio: 105.7 FM, 980 AM