Diggy Coit had a long way to get to College Park.
The graduate guard spent a season in junior college, two at Northern Illinois and one on the bench at Kansas before head coach Buzz Williams swayed him to Maryland men’s basketball for his final season of college basketball.
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And Wednesday against Mount St. Mary’s, years of hard work paid off. Coit exploded late in the second half and ultimately sent the game to overtime on a contested, long-range 3-pointer with just eight seconds left in regulation.
Seven more overtime points brought his game total to 41 — a new career high and tied for the third-most by a Terp in program history. And the explosion came in a game Maryland needed it most.
Despite the Mountaineers storming back from a double-digit deficit and leading by six points late in the second half, Coit’s heroics lifted the Terps to an 95-90 win over Mount St. Mary’s at Xfinity Center after an extra period.
With Pharrel Payne sidelined with the injury he sustained against Marquette, senior Northeastern transfer Collin Metcalf got the start at center. The dropoff was vast and noticeable from the get-go. Metcalf missed an easy layup less than two minutes into the game and committed an illegal screen on the very next possession.
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Metcalf finished with zero points and two rebounds in just 15 minutes, ceding a lot of frontcourt minutes to freshman Aleks Alston — guard Andre Mills also played the four in small lineups.
Maryland’s shooting efficiency regressed to the mean after a stellar outing against Marquette. It was once again stuck in mud to begin the game, starting 0-of-4 from the field before Diggy Coit broke the snap with an off-dribble 3-pointer.
Coit was the spark for the Terps all night. His ball-handling ability stands out among the team’s guard group and, despite his 5-foot-11 stature limiting what he can get away with, flashed passing and finishing ability that can round out his skill set.
Without Payne’s presence inside, things were dicey in the first half. The Terps never led by more than eight points — their halftime advantage — and shot a measly 10-of-28 from the field. Metcalf was a liability, and Alston didn’t show much in his 10 minutes — outside of his first-career 3-pointer.
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Elijah Saunders — the only remaining expected frontcourt starter with Payne and Solomon Washington out — continued what’s been a somewhat disappointing season. He had 14 points on 4-of-12 shooting, but added two costly turnovers and noticeably struggled to move the ball on offense.
Once again struggling from the field, the Terps went back to what’s been their bread and butter all season: free throws. They shot 20 times from the line in the first half and made 16 of them — nine of Darius Adams’ 11 first-half points were from free throws.
But that wasn’t a strategy Maryland could continue to rely on. It slowly built up a 13-point lead until things fell apart midway through the second half.
The Terps’ shots continued to brick, and they couldn’t make up the difference from the charity stripe. Meanwhile, Mount St. Mary’s put together an 8-of-10 shooting stretch capitalized by three straight 3-pointers from the hand of senior Arlandus Keyes.
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Keyes was a thorn in Maryland’s side all game, finishing with a team-high 22 points on 7-of-11 from 3-point range.
The Mountaineers extended their lead to six points before Coit responded with his best stretch of the night: an 8-0 one man run back-to-back 3-pointers followed up by two makes at the free throw line.
The Mountaineers regained a five-point lead and seldom wasted an offensive opportunity down the stretch, forcing the Terps into one last possession down three points with 11 seconds left. Coit, like he did all night, delivered.
Three things to know
1. Baba Oladotun reception. Five-star 2026 forward Baba Oladotun announced his commitment to Maryland midway through Wednesday’s contest.
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Oladotun is a massive get for Williams — his second five-star commit in just eight months as head coach — and will be a major source of excitement in the 2026-27 season. Maryland fans voiced their pleasure with the commitment as it was announced.
2. Rebounding struggles. With or without Payne, it’s never a good thing for a Big Ten team to get outrebounded by a Southwest Athletic Conference team. That’s exactly what happened Wednesday to Maryland. The Mountaineers grabbed 37 boards to the Terps’ 35 — a bleak sign for them if Payne is sidelined for an extended period.
3. Adams’ bizarre statline. Nineteen points and seven rebounds doesn’t stand off the screen. But the manner of Adams’ scoring was the stuff of basketball purists’ nightmares. He was just 1-of-4 from the field, but shot 21 free throws and made 17 of them.
