Maryland Freshmen Dion Wiley Keys Terps against VMI - ALL-MET ELITE

Maryland Freshmen 

Dion Wiley

Keys 

Terps victory against

 VMI 

 ALL-MET ELITE

POTOMAC HS.

OXON HILL MD.

Write up courtesy 

Josh Stirn

maryland.247sports.com

Photo courtesy

Diamondbackonline.com

Maryland freshman Dion Wiley was inserted into the starting lineup for the first time in his young career and he scored the first basket of the game on a layup, but it wasn't until the second half when he scored his next field goal. In between, he missed his final three shots of the first half and turned the ball over two times.

But for Wiley and the Terps, who struggled against VMI in the first half Sunday night against VMI, the second half was a far different story. he scored 17 of his 19 points after halftime, sparking the Terps to a 95-77 win.

With Maryland hilding a tenuous 49-45 lead at the break, coach Mark Turgeon sat Wiley down, calmed him and told him to go to the basket with more conviction.

“He wasn’t very good in the first half and I just set him down and talked to him,” Turgeon said. “I thought he made good decisions in the second half and his first bucket in the second half he didn’t just go up soft. He went up really hard, took the blow and went to the foul line. He missed the free throw, but then that kind of got him going. He had some great finishes.”

Wiley’s first basket of the half increased Maryland’s lead to five, 55-50, just outside of the first TV timeout. The Keydets answered with a three pointer, but Wiley then went on an individual 6-0 run to extend the lead to eight, 61-53, in a stretch lasting just over a minute. Wiley went on to make seven of his eight shots in the half, all of them on layups.

Whoever was on the wing running the lane -- it just happened to be me a lot of times tonight -- but whoever caught it on the wing, coach Turgeon told them to be aggressive and to attack the press and finish so that’s what I had to do," Wiley said.

The eight-point lead sparked by Wiley was extended to double-digits on the next possession, courtesy of a Michal Cekovsky offensive rebound and jumper. The Terps didn’t allow the Keydets to shave the lead to less than 10 points for the rest of the game, which served as a tuneup for Wednesday's showdown against No. 8 Virginia in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge.

“We’ve been looking for Dion to step up the scoring since Dez [Wells]is out,” fellow freshman Melo Trimble said. “He showed today that he can be aggressive.

“He can do a lot of things off the bounce ... I think he has one of the tightest handles on the team and a lot of teams don’t know that because he can shoot. So far he’s just been catching and shooting but he can do it all.”