#6 Duke beats MD; The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

The Comcast Center will always be the ‘House that Gary’ built, and tonight the court was officially named after Coach Williams, putting fans of the Terrapins into a frenzy against #6 Duke.

However, as important as it is to remember the legacy of Williams, a new chapter in Maryland’s history is unfolding before our eyes with the beginning of the Coach Turgeon era. This was Turgeon’s first game with a raucous sold-out Maryland crowd behind him. This was Turgeon’s first game against one of the Atlantic Coast Conference’s two blue-bloods.

Beyond those larger picture thoughts, Maryland had their opportunities tonight for a win over one of the Nation’s Top 10 teams. The Terps played hard, but ultimately Duke was able to pull away for a 74-61 win. With the loss, MD falls to 12-7 overall, and 2-3 in the ACC.

The Good:

1) Pankey had a couple of early slams off good looks from both Howard, and Stoglin. Pankey finished with 8 points and 8 boards.

2) To have a chance in this game, MD needed some scoring from someone outside of Stoglin. Early on, Howard and Mosley did a good job of looking their shots, and hitting a couple of jumpers.

3) Maryland had taken 10 shots as a team before Stoglin made his first attempt. This was a positive as the guard was looking to get his teammates involved. Stoglin’s scoring got rolling in the 2nd half, as he would hit his first 3 attempts. Stoglin finished with 16 points, and 3 assists.

4) With a strong interior pass from Padgett, Weijs had an easy slam.

5) During the first 10 minutes of the game, the Terps were doing just an outstanding job of driving to the rim, and either scoring, or getting to the line. A lot of strong passing, led by Howard.
5a) Howard finished with 10 points, 6 boards, 4 assists, and a steal.

6) Another thing MD needed to have, to have a chance tonight, was rebounding from their bigs. Pankey and Padgett combined for 11 boards. Duke is not a great rebounding team, but they do have a size advantage over the Terps. MD did well playing them just about even on the glass.

7) Faust got the Terps back within 2 (32-30) with an aggressive drive and finish. With a nice bounce, he hit a 3 in the 2nd half to get MD within 5. He would later hit an intermediate jumper as well. Faust finished with 7 points, and 3 boards.

8) Parker was playing very hard in his minutes. He used his athleticism for a big block in the closing minutes of the 1st half. With a strong cut to the basket, he finished on a look from Mosley.

9) Big play from Mosley at the of the 1st half, taking the charge on Rivers, getting the ball back to the Terps. Duke was up 5 points at the time and could have extended their lead. Instead MD was able to score as the half ended, and pull within 3.
9a) In the middle of the 2nd half, Mosley had back-to-back good defensive plays. Mosley finished with 6 points, 5 boards, 3 assists, and a steal.

10) Len had 2 blocks, and 1 good offensive move.

The Bad:

1) After Dawkins missed a 3 from five feet outside of the 3 pt line, Mason Plumlee ripped down a rebound over 3 Terrapins.

2) Pankey and Padgett were getting abused early by Mason Plumlee, who had 6 of Duke’s first 10 points. This continued all game, with a lack of adjustments from the Terps. Mason Plumlee finished with 21 points (8 of 10 from the floor), and 6 boards.

3) In the middle of the 1st half, Faust showed nice explosion to the rim, but blew the layup.

4) Len entered the game early, but picked up 2 fouls in the matter of a minute and was forced back to the bench.
4a) Len showed good hands in his initial couple of games, but had trouble catching anything tonight.

5) As I mentioned above, I liked that Stoglin was looking for his teammates and holding off on his own shooting to begin the game. That said, when he did start looking to get involved offensively, he looked uncomfortable. He only had 4 points in the 1st half, missing 4 of his 6 attempts, all 3 of his 3 point attempts, and a crucial front-end of a 1 and 1.

6) Down 1, Kelly and Duke made Maryland pay with a 3 pointer to increase the Blue Devils lead to 4 at 42-38. This was painful to watch, as Kelly scored on Duke’s 4th shot of the possession, with MD unable to corral the ball on any of the Devils 3 misses.

7) Howard had 4 turnovers.

The Ugly:

1) At the 15:17 mark of the 2nd half, the Terps were up 3 at 45-42. With 8:52 left in the game, Duke was up 57-48. It is hard to pull off upsets, with scoring droughts like that.

2) MD was 11 of 21 from the FT line. Stoglin was 2 for 7.