The No. 2 Ranked Terps Hoop Team Plays Again Tonight in Cancun vs the Rams from R.I.!


#2 TERPS FACE RHODE ISLAND IN CANCUN FINALE

CANCUN, Mexico - The No. 2 Maryland men’s basketball team will face Rhode Island for the Riviera Division title of the Cancun Challege on Wednesday at 8:30 p.m. on the CBS Sports Network.
WATCH: CBS Sports Network - Thad Anderson (Play-by-Play), Doug Gottlieb (Analyst)
LISTEN: Terrapin Sports Radio Network - Johnny Holliday (Play-By-Play), Chris Knoche(Analyst)
SOCIAL: Follow @TerrapinHoops on Twitter for in-game updates
STORYLINES
• Rasheed Sulaimon scored 18 points and Melo Trimble added 15 to help the No. 2 Maryland men’s basketball team beat Illinois State 77-66 on Tuesday night in the Cancun Challenge. With the game tied at 62, back-to-back 3-pointers by Jared Nickens and Sulaimon gave the Terrapins (4-0) a six-point cushion with 3:45 left. Damonte Doddregistered a career-high in points with 13, including 12 in the second half. Trimble added seven assists as five Terrapins recorded double-digit scoring, including Jake Layman (12) and Robert Carter (11).
• The Terps are now outscoring opponents 59-30 in the final five minutes of games this season, an average of plus-7.25 per game. Maryland has had an early-season tendency of key players boasting large impacts in the second half. As the Terps faced its first halftime deficit of the season vs. Rider Nov. 20, freshman Diamond Stone netted 10 of his career-high 12 points in the second stanza to lift the Terps to the win. Against Georgetown Nov. 17, Melo Trimble scored 17 of his 24 points in the second half. Jake Layman scored all 15 of his points in the second half on 4-for-5 shooting from the floor vs. the Hoyas. Damonte Dodd scored 12 of his career-high 13 points in the second half vs. Illinois State Nov. 24.
• Maryland defeated Arizona State and No. 13-ranked Iowa State to capture the 2014 CBE Hall of Fame Classic at the Sprint Center in Kansas City a year ago. Melo Trimble earned Most Valuable Player honors after averaging 21 points, three rebounds and two assists in the pair of wins. He scored a career-high 31 points in the Terps’ win over ASU. It was Maryland’s 30th regular season championship in school history and marked the second consecutive season under Terps head coach Mark Turgeon that Maryland won a tournament. In 2013, Maryland won the Paradise Jam with victories over Marist, Northern Iowa and Providence in St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands.
• Head coach Mark Turgeon is 24-6 in the month of November while at the helm of the Maryland basketball program. The Terps own a 14-game winning streak in the month of November, including a 7-0 run a year ago. Maryland has not dropped a game in November since Nov. 17, 2013 against Oregon State (90-83). With its No. 2 ranking Monday, this is the highest-ranked team Turgeon has coached in his career.
TERPS TOP ILLINOIS STATE TUESDAY IN CHALLENGE
• Rasheed Sulaimon scored 18 points and Melo Trimble added 15 to help the No. 2 Maryland men’s basketball team beat Illinois State 77-66 on Tuesday night in the Cancun Challenge.

• With the game tied at 62, back-to-back 3-pointers by Jared Nickens and Sulaimon gave the Terrapins (4-0) a six-point cushion with 3:45 left.

• Damonte Dodd registered a career-high in points with 13, including 12 in the second half. Trimble added seven assists as five Terrapins recorded double-digit scoring, includingJake Layman (12) and Robert Carter (11).
TERPS WIN 2014 CBE CLASSIC
• Maryland defeated Arizona State and No. 13-ranked Iowa State to capture the 2014 CBE Hall of Fame Classic at the Sprint Center in Kansas City a year ago.

• Melo Trimble earned Most Valuable Player honors after averaging 21 points, three rebounds and two assists in the pair of wins. He scored a career-high 31 points in the Terps’ win over ASU.

• It was Maryland’s 30th regular season championship in school history and marked the second consecutive season under Terps head coach Mark Turgeon that Maryland won a tournament. In 2013, Maryland won the Paradise Jam with victories over Marist, Northern Iowa and Providence in St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands.
SCOUTING RHODE ISLAND
• Rhode Island moved to 3-1 on the year after defeating TCU, 66-60, on Tuesday night in Cancun.

• Three players are averaging 12 or more points for Rhode Island, led by 13 per game from Four McGlynn. Rhode Island is outscoring opponents by 13.5 points per game through its first four contests in 2015-16.

• Maryland is 2-1 all-time against Rhode Island. The Terps won the last meeting between the two programs, an NIT triple overtime battle at Cole Field House, 67-65, on March 7, 1979.
#RIVARLY-RENEWED - TERPS DOWN GEORGETOWN
• Rasheed Sulaimon hit a 3-pointer with 1:18 left to break a tie, and No. 3 Maryland got 24 points from Melo Trimble in a rousing 75-71 victory over neighborhood rival Georgetown on Tuesday night.

• Maryland was stretched to the finish against Georgetown, which led by seven in the second half before wilting.

• With the score tied at 68, Sulaimon made his only basket of the second half to put the Terrapins ahead to stay. Two free throws by Trimble upped the margin to five points with 12 seconds left, assuring Maryland a victory.

• Jake Layman scored 15 for the Terrapins and Robert Carter added 12.
LAYMAN, TRIMBLE NAMED TO WOODEN LIST
• Maryland men’s basketball forward Jake Layman and guard Melo Trimble have been named to the John R. Wooden Award presented by Wendy’s Preseason Top-50 as announced Tuesday on ESPN’s SportsCenter and on ESPN.com.

• Chosen by a preseason poll of national college basketball experts, the list is comprised of 50 student-athletes who are the early front-runners for college basketball’s most prestigious individual honor. Maryland is one of 12 schools in the country with multiple players in the top-50.

• The Top 50 nominees represent 10 conferences. The Big Ten leads all conferences with 10 selections, followed by the ACC (9), and the Big 12 (7), SEC (7), Pac-12 (5), Big East (4) and WCC (3).
LAYMAN’S TERMS
• Senior forward Jake Layman is the lone four-year Terrapin on head coach Mark Turgeon’s roster in 2015-16.

• Layman appeared in all 35 games last season, averaging 12.5 points and a team-high 5.8 rebounds per game. He scored his 1,000th point at Maryland against Indiana in the quarterfinals of the Big Ten tournament.

• The Wrentham, Mass., native became the 40th member of Maryland’s 500-rebound club against Rider on Nov. 20.

Maryland vs. Rhode Island preview: Terps draw deep Rams team in Cancun Challenge. e Maryland men's basketball team caps a swing through Cancun, Mexico, on Wednesday night with a game against Rhode Island. The Terrapins and Rams will tip at 8:30 p.m. EST on the CBS Sports Network.

Rhode Island is an interesting challenge. The Rams lost their best player, guard E.C. Matthews, to a knee injury before the season even really got started. When Matthews went down, he left a 17-point, 5-rebound void in Rhode Island's nightly rotation, and the Rams have had to band together in the season's early going to hold up without him.

The Rams have lost to the only good team they've played (a 58-55 defeat to old Maryland friend Valparaiso on Nov. 17), but they're nonetheless 3-1 and have found nice depth scoring without Matthews. Five players average double-figure scoring, presenting a long bench of scoring options for which Maryland must account.

Moreover, the Rams have an elite defense. Maryland isn't likely to cruise in this game.

Rhode Island Rams (3-1)

The coach
Dan Hurley. 48-50 at Rhode Island (86-73 overall). Fourth season at URI. No NCAA Tournament bids.

Players to know
Jared Terrell, junior, guard, 6'3, No. 32. The team's leading scorer so far, Terrell isn't actually all that efficient. He has a ghastly 43.6 effective field goal percentage, held down by a 5-of-17 mark (29 percent) on 3-pointers. He uses up more than a quarter of the Rams' shots, but he hasn't been anything more than a volume scorer in the first few games.

Hassan Martin, junior, forward, 6'7, No. 12. The biggest thing to know about Martin is that he's an athletic shot blocker. So far, he's got a top-40 national block rate, having swatted away 11 percent of all opposing shots while he's been on the floor. He's also been a reasonably efficient scorer. He gets to the foul line a lot but shoots sub-50 percent once there.

Four McGlynn, senior, guard, 6'2, No. 4. McGlynn has a great name and a great jumper. He's shooting right around 50 percent on 3-pointers, and he boasts a team-best 119.4 offensive rating.

Kuran Iverson, junior, forward, 6'9, No. 23. Iverson does a bit of everything. He's not an efficient scorer, but he does get his baskets inside and does collect defensive rebounds at about a 20 percent clip. He's the Rams' biggest rotation player, so expect to see him matched against Maryland's centers when Hurley isn't in a zone defense.

Jarvis Garrett, sophomore, guard, 6'0, No. 1. Garrett is small, but he'll get the Rams 10 points per night and play a moderately efficient offensive game. From his point guard slot, Garrett is by far the team's best assists guy.

*Stats haven't been updated to reflect Tuesday night's results.

Strengths
Defense. The Rams don't give many points. Their team-adjusted defensive efficiency has hovered around 91 points per 100 possessions in each of the last two seasons (including the start of this one), both times a top-10 mark nationally. Last season, the Rams held opponents to a hilarious 27.2 percent 3-point shooting rate and blocked an equally outrageous 15 percent of opposing shot attempts. This year, they've given up 21 percent of opposing 3-pointers and blocked 16 percent of opposing shots. This team looks like an absolute defensive juggernaut.

Balance. The Rams have a lot of it. Amid having five double-figure offensive options so far, they only run an eight-man rotation without Matthews. Almost everybody is an offensive threat, with six players shooting on at least about one in five possessions. They share the ball and get looks from players all over the court.

Weaknesses
Foul shooting. Rhode Island is making worse than 60 percent of its foul shots this year, after shooting 66 percent last year. The Rams get to the line quite a lot, as they take 60 foul shots for every 100 shots from the field, which is the sixth-most frequent rate in the country. But once the Rams get to the line, they miss far too often.

Turnovers. Teams steal the ball from the Rams on about 13 percent of their possessions. The national average is 8.6 percent. The Rams were slightly below average in this regard last year, and Maryland could cut some possessions short by aggressively pressuring the ball.