Maryland vs. Delaware State: Maryland starts slow, but rebounds for 79-50 victory

The weather outside is weather.

But that didn't stop 12,389 fans from showing up to an early Saturday afternoon game the weekend in between Christmas and New Years. The fans weren't let down, either, as Maryland struggled to get going, but used a 21-4 run to open the game up in the first half. Maryland went on to defeat Delaware State 79-50 in their second to last game before starting ACC play.

Charles Mitchell had combined for six points in his previous three games, but continuing with Maryland's trend of balance, Mitchell rebounded -- literally and figuratively.

"If the ball is in the air and I jump first, it is mine," Mitchell continued, "If I'm the closest to it, it is mine."

Mitchell finished with 14 rebounds -- a new career-high -- but what was more impressive was his 19 points (also a career-high). Delaware State couldn't contain Mitchell and Coach Mark Turgeon heaped some praise on the freshman.

"He was probably eating a few pizza's at night he shouldn't be, and he got back to his discipline. He's worked hard and he lost weight, and those are some pretty impressive numbers," Turgeon said about Mitchell.

Dez Wells had the play of the game with a thunderous dunk in the first half that really spurred the big Maryland run. While Wells wasn't dominant on Saturday afternoon, he did put in a solid shift filling up the stat sheet. He finished with ten points, five rebounds, four assists and two steals.

"Dez [Wells] is just so unselfish he knows he didn't have to do a lot tonight, so he didn't do a lot, but he was still really good," Coach Turgeon said about Wells stat-stuffing night.

One new wrinkle from Saturday's game was the first real look at Maryland's potential full-court press under Turgeon this season. Turgeon mentioned how he pulled it out of the cobwebs just to speed the tempo of the game up. He also mentioned how Delaware State seemed to be caught off guard by it and that's why it was so effective. The press was very effective and while it was only used to get the tempo going, it was something that we are all likely to see more of come conference play.

With the win the Terrapins improved to 11-1 and will have one final warm up game out of conference before starting ACC play a week from Saturday against Virginia Tech at home.