Iona beats up on Terps; The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

The University of Maryland fell to 2-2 on the season, with a 89-63 blowout loss to Iona. Had they won, the Terps could have considered their trip to Puerto Rico a success. With the loss, Maryland leaves the Island with one neutral court victory, two blowout losses, and hopefully multiple lessons learned.

Iona is a quality team, with their PG Machado one of the best PG’s in the country, Arizona transfer Jones also in their back-court, and Pre-Season MAAC Player of the Year Glover in their back-court. After watching them put up 90 points on Purdue, we knew they had the capability of putting points on the board. You could argue that this game might have been different with Howard, and Len available; but the bottom-line is that with the players that were available today; MD was able to do little on the defensive end to slow Iona.

The Good:

1) Loved seeing Stoglin immediately go to the rim on Maryland’s first possession. With under 20 seconds left in the 1st, Stoglin closed the deficit to 3, with 3 points the old-fashioned way. Stoglin finished with 17 points, 3 boards, 1 assist, and 1 block.

2) Mosely followed-up the better shooting we saw from Friday night, hitting an open 3 on his first look. He then hit a tough fall-back jumper, and another 3 for eight points in the first 5 minutes +. With MD down 8 points (35-27), Mosley picked up a needed charge with about 2 minutes left in the 1st. Out of a timeout, and down 14 points (56-42) Mosley hit another 3. The game was over, but Mosley closed the game to 74-57 when he again buried a 3. His improved outside shooting is one of the positives to take out of these three games in Puerto Rico. The Senior Guard would finish with 18 points.

3) Coming out of a TO, Parker ran a nice set play to the rim, clsoing the game to 19-16. Following a Stoglin miss, Parker scrambled hard for the ball, and was able to gain possession and get to the line. Parker did bury an open 3 late in the 2nd half.

4) The walk-on Jonathan Thomas hit a 3 from the top of the key, pulling MD within 1 at 22-21.

5) Weijs had a couple of positive offensive plays. He scored his 2nd basket on a nice jump hook, after using his eight and raising the ball high above his head. He also added a late 3. He finished with those 7 points, and 4 boards.

6) Padgett was doing a good job of fighting for position, and going to the rim. He had an important put back, closing the deficit to 7 at 56-49. Padgett had 6 points, and 7 boards.

7) MD began the 2nd half with a fast-break, started by a block from Pankey. Pankey had just 2 points, but finished with 11 points, and 2 blocks.

8) MD did win on the boards 34-29.

The Bad:

1) Early on, Pankey dropped a pass underneath the basket.

2) With MD up 12-11, Faust would throw away the ball on an in-bounds.

3) It was known going into this game that Iona wanted to run. Too often, the Terps were getting beat back down the court after their own scoring possessions.

4) Underneath the Iona basket, Parker threw the ball out of bounds. His troubles at the foul-line continued.

5) After cutting the lead to 1 to beging the 2nd half, Maryland allowed a 8-0 lead to again fall behind by 9.

The Ugly:

1) At the 8:26 mark of the 1st half, Faust was forced to the bench, having picked up his 3rd foul. 2 of the 3 were offensive fouls. With 3 minutes left in the half, Parker had picked up 3rd foul as well. With a thin roster, MD can not afford to losetheir scholarship players to foul trouble. At the 10 minute mark of the 2nd half, MD had five different players with 3 fouls.
1a) The foul trouble took Faust out of the game early. For MD to be competitive, he has to be a factor every game in at-least one facet of the game. For the 2nd time in this tournament, the Freshman was irrelevant.

2) Too many 25 turnovers for Maryland today. The Terps also allowed too many 2nd chances, as Iona had 15 more shots.

3) Maryland was down just 3 at the half, but wound up losing by 26.