As the final buzzer sounded off in Seattle Friday evening, Maryland basketball fans began clapping and cheering at Cornerstone Grill and Loft sports bar in College Park. It was the start of what they hope is a strong run through the NCAA men’s college basketball tournament.
The fourth-seeded Terrapins pounded Grand Canyon 81-49 in the first round of the tournament, setting up a matchup against Colorado State Sunday. Meanwhile, thousands of miles away, Terps fans came out to support the team, filling up bars near the university’s campus with cheers and excitement.
“I’m a senior, so this is easily the best team that I’ve experienced as a college student,” Jared Scheinberg, of Potomac, said.
Maryland fans at @CP_Cornerstone let out a big cheer after @TerrapinHoops earn a dominant victory in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. The Terps take on Colorado State on Sunday. #umd https://t.co/eKWpGwtlNN pic.twitter.com/BNfedyLu0y
— José Mauricio Umaña (@Jose_M_Umana) March 22, 2025
The senior was originally going to watch Maryland’s first-round game at home before his friend, Jacob Shukam, invited him out. They joined about 30 other fans who packed Cornerstone to watch the game.
“I’m a nervous wreck watching the team, but I just wanted to be around more Terps fans and feel the hype around all these people,” Scheinberg said.
The bar scene in College Park is normally bustling with people for Maryland football and men’s basketball games. However, with spring break landing on the first week of the NCAA Tournament, many students elected to go home for the week. Staff at Cornerstone and RJ Bentley’s restaurant and bar next door told WTOP that they planned for crowds to be smaller than normal.
As the game approached tipoff, more people showed up to the sports bar in groups of 3 to 4 people. Once the game began, most people sat in silence, watching the game and only clapping or cheering when Maryland scored.
Both teams got off to a slow start. Maryland led 15-10 midway through the first half and then went on an 18-1 run. After the streak, the Terrapins continued pushing forward and never looked back.
“We’re pumped,” student Hannah Audouin said after the game. “Everybody was kind of scared, because you never know; there’s upsets in March Madness. But we pulled through, and we crushed them.”
Led by their starters nicknamed the “Crab Five,” the Terps overwhelmed the Lopes, winning by the biggest margin in the school’s tournament history. Terps fan Jack Welch said while he was happy with the result, he also liked how the performance of Maryland’s players, including DeShawn Harris-Smith, who scored 11 points in 24 minutes off the bench.
“They got the bench involved more, because there’s been talks about that all season and how they don’t have any depth,” Welch said. “I like how they adjusted to that and got some of the bench guys going.”
Jahir Williams, 24, enjoyed how well the “Crab Five” played as four of them scored in double figures, with Julian Reese leading the way with 18 points and nine rebounds. He hopes that Maryland can advance to the Sweet 16, and believes that its guards — Ja’Kobi Gillespie and Rodney Rice, among others — need to be a factor for it to be possible.
“They’re just shooting lights out every single game,” Williams said. “And if they can just keep that going, I think that they can go pretty far.”
With spring break coming to a close this weekend, College Park restaurants hope that they can entice students to come out to watch tournament games, including Maryland’s. Multiple people told WTOP they plan to keep returning to Cornerstone and other area bars throughout the tournament to keep cheering for their favorite team.
“We got to show support,” Shukam said. “We’re a basketball school. We’ve always been a basketball school. This is our identity, and we should be a notorious basketball school.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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