COLLEGE PARK, Md. — Sam Lewis scored a career-high 28 points and No. 6 Virginia came back from 11 points down at halftime to beat Maryland 87-83 on Friday night at XFINITY Center, according to Maryland Athletics.
The Cavaliers (5-0) trailed 47-36 at the break and were still down 10 with 12:20 to play. A 9-0 run cut the Maryland lead to one midway through the second half, and the teams were tied 67-67 with seven minutes left. Lewis put Virginia ahead for good on a drive and dunk with 5:06 remaining, and Thijs De Ridder’s 3-pointer with 1:32 left pushed the lead to 85-77.
Virginia shot 76.9% from the floor in the second half, Virginia Athletics reported, and scored 58 points in the paint. A team that came in averaging 11.5 made 3-pointers a game attempted only 10 shots from beyond the arc all night.
Lewis, a 6-foot-7 guard, finished 12 for 16 from the floor, and all 12 of his baskets came inside the arc. Most of his points came on layups.
“I just played in the flow in the game,” Lewis said. “Whatever they gave me, I took. The 3 wasn’t falling, so I was taking it to the basket, and that was open. That’s what we needed at the time, so that’s what I took.”
De Ridder added 20 points and seven rebounds for Virginia. Johann Grünloh had 15 points, seven rebounds and three blocked shots, and Chance Mallory finished with 12 points, five rebounds and four assists.
Maryland head coach Buzz Williams said his staff had scouted Lewis as a shooter, not a driver.
“He was a guy we played as a 3-point shooter that turned into a very physical downhill guard.”
Payne, House and McNair Lead Maryland
Pharrel Payne led Maryland (1-2) with 20 points, 12 of them before halftime. Freshman Kaden House scored 17 points and Mike McNair Jr. added 15, and the Terrapins’ bench produced 42 points.
The 11-point deficit was the largest Virginia had faced this season; the Cavaliers had not trailed by more than eight points in any game before Friday. Maryland’s halftime lead was its largest against a top-10 team since 2015. Virginia committed 17 turnovers, and Maryland attempted 39 free throws.
“It was a great environment,” Virginia head coach Ryan Odom said after his team’s first true road game of the season. The Terps “put a ton of pressure on us in the first half to respond,” Odom said, “and we had no other choice but to respond appropriately after halftime.”
It was Virginia’s first trip to College Park in eight years and the 186th meeting between the schools, in a series that dates to the 1912-13 season. A crowd of 16,908 attended. The Cavaliers have won 10 of the past 11 meetings with Maryland, now a Big Ten member. Maryland hosts Alcorn State on Monday, and Virginia hosts Old Dominion on Tuesday night.