Scots barrage Greensboro from deep, snap five-game skid

Maryville College was headed towards a direction it was all too familiar with as the first half closed.

The Scots had a lead as large as 15 points, but Greensboro slowly began chipping away. Maryville head coach Raul Placeres called a timeout in the final minute of the half and was visibly upset with the way his players closed the frame, taking only a seven-point lead into the break.

Just as the Scots had done in their loss to Emory, a sizable lead was escaping through their fingers.

Maryville answered Placeres’ challenge in the second half, turning a competitive match into a 101-73 landslide win Tuesday night inside Boydson H. Baird Gymnasium. The Scots scored 100-plus points for the first time since December 8, 2018 as they snapped their five-game losing streak.

“The two intangibles I challenged them today were to have a good start, which we did, and I wanted to finish the half well,” Placeres told The Daily Times. “And we didn’t do that. It kind of was a microcosm of the Emory game. We dominated the whole first half and then we took our feet off the pedal. They punched us in the mouth and we lost the lead.

“Today, I went back to that moment. Are we growing from our previous experiences? And that’s what it’s all about, growth as the year goes on, and I think we answered the bell pretty well there with how we started the second half.”

Maryville opened the second half on a 14-7 run and made its first three 3-pointers. The Scots bombarded Greensboro from beyond the arc, tying the program record with 17 3-pointers in the win. It was the fourth time the Scots have hit that plateau and the first time since February 17, 2013 against Averett.

Freshman guard Jackson Garner, in his second career start, paced the Scots’ record night. He finished with a game-high 25 points as he went 7-of-10 from 3-point range. Garner is averaging 19.0 points and made 10 3s in two games since filling in for junior Chase Ridenour, who is sidelined with a knee injury

“I’ve seen him do this pretty consistently in high school, and I knew he could translate,” Placeres said of Garner. “He’s only going to get better as he acclimates himself to the speed of the game, continues to get stronger. He’s going to be a pretty darn good player at this level.”

Led by a career-showing from Garner, the Scots shot 53.4% from the field and 53.1% (17-of-32) from deep — 10 of which came in the second half, when Maryville connected on 71.4% of 3-pointers.

It was a stark contrast to Maryville’s 3-point shooting over its five-game losing streak. Despite attempting 95 3’s in that span, the Scots made only 25 (26.3%) of them. Placeres felt that the transformation came from a willingness to pass the ball and look for a better shot. The Scots totaled 20 assists on their 31 made field goals.

“Coach has been preaching to us to get a lot more ‘One more’ passes,” Garner said. “In those first couple games, we had a lot of one-pass shots. Getting into the second phase of the offense — the one more’s, the second drive, kick and escapes that we work on every day — that really helped.”

Maryville will not be back in action inside Cooper Athletic Center until it kicks off conference play in January. The Scots will go on the road to face Birmingham-Southern next Sunday before playing tournaments in Daytona Beach, Florida, and Ashland, Virginia, to close out the calendar year.