COLLEGE PARK, Md. — Maryland has found itself in tight games at halftime in back-to-back weeks.

In both cases, the Terrapins haven’t waited much longer to uncork a game-clinching run.

A sizzling eight-goal burst out of the break sent No. 2 Maryland to an 18-10 victory over No. 19 Johns Hopkins on Saturday in the first of the teams’ two meetings this season. Jared Bernhardt scored five goals, Anthony DeMaio added four and Logan Wisnauskas delivered two goals and a career-best seven assists for the Terps (3-0).

Logan Wisnauskas today

9 points - T-5th most in Maryland history
7 assists - T-2nd most in Maryland history

Groot can play #BeTheBest pic.twitter.com/qGTrqMBbAx

— Maryland Lacrosse (@TerpsMLax) March 6, 2021

“We kept saying, ‘Be patient, our time is coming,’” said Wisnauskas, whose nine points was also a career high. “Things didn’t come easy for us in the first half, and we were just waiting for that third-quarter run. It was like, ‘Come on, we need to get going.’ We kind of found that spark. Maybe it was Jared getting that eighth goal, which kind of set us off.”

It’s as good a choice as any to explain Maryland’s run. Wisnauskas and DeMaio scored in the final minutes of the first half to forge a 7-7 tie with the Blue Jays (1-2), who were especially crisp and methodical in the opening 30 minutes. Bernhardt scored less than five minutes into the second half near the crease and was crunched in the process, briefly leaving the game.

He returned to record another three goals, and what once was a two-goal hole turned into a 16-7 lead early in the fourth quarter.  A week earlier, Maryland led Penn State by a goal at halftime but scored the first four goals out of the locker room en route to a 13-7 triumph.

“You can take a little offense to it and the guys get an extra jolt, and I thought that was helpful,” Terps head coach John Tillman said. “The guys responded really well. We were hoping to have a good start to the third quarter. I would have never guessed it would be an 8-0 third quarter.”

Joey Epstein had three goals and an assist, and Cole Williams added two goals and three assists for Hopkins, which looked like two different teams over the course of the afternoon as its three-game winning streak against its longtime rival ended.

The biggest problem was turnovers. After committing only four giveaways in the first half, Hopkins had six in the third quarter alone and 11 overall in the second half. Maryland was credited with 10 caused turnovers, but Hopkins coach Peter Milliman acknowledged the Blue Jays tried to do a bit too much as the game started to get away after providing an even match for two quarters.

“I think they played well in the third quarter, and maybe we didn’t show up in the third quarter is probably the better way of saying that,” Milliman said. “Because I thought the first half was a pretty good comparison. I don’t know if they were the cleanest I’ve seen them in the first half, but we were scrapping and competing. They were clearly better when we made as many mistakes as we did in the second half.”

Still, it was striking how much more precise Hopkins’ offense was Saturday than in its opener two weeks earlier, a 14-8 loss to Ohio State. The Blue Jays scored coming out of a pair of first-half timeouts, and Connor DeSimone collected a goal off a restart behind the cage as the shot clock was about to expire.

“We’re making some progress, but we’re not making enough and consistently enough,” said Milliman, whose team will play host to the Terps later this season, though the date has not yet been finalized. “I think that first half was probably the best lacrosse we’ve played, but it was not sustained and teams are not tested on 30 minutes. You’re tested on 60 minutes.”

Just ask Maryland, which got better at both ends of the field as the afternoon unfolded. The Terps entered allowing just eight goals a game, but Hopkins nearly got there in the first half with its skillful play. But it would be 22 minutes, 40 seconds of game time between the Blue Jays’ seventh and eighth goals thanks to Maryland’s improved on-ball presence.

Meanwhile, the offense eventually realized it would not be a game when a single dodge would be enough to generate good looks. And Wisnauskas was seemingly in the middle of everything as the Terps ran away, assisting on four goals in third quarter and six in the second half.

Wisnauskas’ effort was Maryland’s first nine-point game since Connor Kelly had 10 against Notre Dame in 2018. The seven assists are tied for the second-most in school history.

“He just makes great decisions,” Tillman said. “If you leave him alone, he can hammer the ball. If you’re a little late, he can find the open man, which he certainly did today. He’s a consistent guy that every day when you go out to practice, you know what you’re getting.”

It seems the same might be said for these Terps — at least once they get started. Maryland set itself up for a titanic clash with fellow unbeaten Rutgers on Saturday in College Park. The Terps and Scarlet Knights are already two games clear of the rest of the Big Ten, which is playing a conference-only schedule this season.

For now, Maryland will rightfully savor its first defeat of Hopkins since the 2018 regular season. Much of the Terps’ veteran core endured losses to the Blue Jays in the 2018 and 2019 Big Ten tournaments, as well as the 2019 regular season meeting at Maryland.

“I look back at those ’19 games and I saw so many young guys … just a lot of guys that were freshmen or sophomores that are still with us,” Tillman said. “Those were big games, and they were young guys, and they’re not young guys anymore. That experience and leadership of sticking together and, ‘Hey guys, follow me,’ ... that goes a long way.”