COLLEGE PARK, Md. — There is little mystery about Maryland’s formula for winning this season, and it isn’t vastly different from what has led the Terrapins to both of the last two NCAA tournaments.

Win enough faceoffs to avoid long possession droughts. Look for good shots with the hope of occasionally creating some transition. Play sound defense in front of a goalie who can stop his share of shots.

When in doubt, turn to Matt Rambo to serve as the epicenter of an offense featuring six capable finishers when the first midfield unit is on the field.

And never, ever offer a hint of contentment when there’s still another game to be played.

Rambo set career bests in assists (six) and points (eight) and Tim Rotanz scored a career-high five goals as the top-seeded Terps broke open a tight game in the third quarter en route to a 13-10 defeat of Bryant on Sunday in the first round of the NCAA tournament. Maryland never trailed and didn’t allow the Bulldogs within a goal in the last three quarters.

But the emphasis in the moments after wrapping up the victory was a slapdash final eight minutes that saw Bryant score the day’s final five goals.

“I don’t think we focus on the good too much,” senior defensive midfielder Isaiah Davis-Allen said. “For us, we want to focus on the bad. Just staring at this sheet, we got out-groundballed [31-25] and that’s something that’s really special here and it’s something that coaches preach all the time. I think for us, we’re going to focus on those last eight minutes and not the first 52 minutes.”

That’s one way to handle matters as Maryland (13-3) heads into a quarterfinal matchup with eighth-seeded Albany next Sunday in Newark, Del. Morose though it may seem, it’s a plan that keeps working in May for the Terps.

“To be a team that plays in late May, I feel you have to constantly be looking for little ways to improve,” coach John Tillman said.

To its credit, Bryant (11-8) created plenty of issues while badgering Maryland for much of the day. Tucker James scored four goals and Cam Ziegler added three for the Northeast Conference champions, who were making their fourth NCAA tournament appearance in the last five years.

It was a predictably feisty showing for the Bulldogs, who remained within reach of the Terps throughout a first half that featured plenty of extended possessions for both teams.

“The first half of the game went the way we wanted it to go,” Ziegler said. “We played our tempo and we were getting the looks we wanted to get and everything was going as planned. In the second half, we got a little ahead of ourselves at the beginning of the third quarter and made a few too many mistakes and let the game get away from us a little bit.”

The game remained stuck on the 6-4 lead Maryland took into the break well into the third quarter, only for the Terps to coax one extended spurt out of an offense that struggled in the first half to decipher the zone look Bryant often offered.

But Rambo scored, then assisted moments later on a Jared Bernhardt score. Bryant committed an unnecessary roughness penalty on that goal, and Rotanz cashed in the ensuing extra-man chance to make it 9-4.

“We just wanted to — not slow the game down, but take a deep breath and get the ball moving and get into our sets because we were just going so fast and so hectic and weren’t really getting the right looks we really wanted,” Rotanz said. “Once we started getting those looks and settling ourselves and getting good, clean shots, we knew we could get some goals.”

Ultimately, Maryland’s offensive efficiency (13-of-28, including 7-of-13 in the second half) had plenty to do with its Tewaaraton finalist. Rambo had a hand in six of the Terps’ seven goals in the second half.

“He’s such a handful,” Bryant coach Mike Pressler said. “In the zone [or] man, he’s as dominant attackman as there is in our game today. We made some mistakes against him, but give him credit. I don’t care what you do or who plays him, he’s going to get his. No. 1 is probably the best offensive player in college lacrosse this season.”

Maryland eventually pushed the margin to 13-5 before getting sloppy in the closing stretch. And Bryant, which features a senior class that was part of a 2014 first-round upset at Syracuse, was not about to go meekly into the postseason.

Instead, the Bulldogs took advantage of the Terps’ sloppiness before Maryland managed to run out the clock.

“All the sudden, 6-4 goes to 9-4, 10-5 and then from there on out I thought our guys absolutely outfought them,” Pressler said. “If the game goes another five minutes, who knows? Maybe it’s 13-13. That’s who we are. We’re not pretty. We’re not flashy. We’re nails tough.”

So, too, are the Terps, that forgettable finish notwithstanding. Go down the checklist, and they did much of what they wanted to in the first round. They earned a faceoff edge (13-12) for the first time in seven games. Goalie Dan Morris stopped half of the shots on goal. They shot nearly 50 percent for the game.

And yet a rematch with Albany looms. Maryland beat the Great Danes 12-11 on April 12, a result that means little for the top seed as the tournament enters its final two weekends.

Little the Terps have done to date does, really — except for maybe a gnawing sense of disappointment about the last eight minutes on Sunday.

“Gotta play 60 minutes at this time of year or you run the risk of going home,” Tillman said. “Certainly if we don’t play 60 good minutes next week, we will be going home.”