The University of Maryland improved to 19-8 overall, 7-7 in Atlantic Coast Conference play with a 72-59 win over Clemson.

The Terrapins started slowly, but got going when Coach Turgeon went to an early press. MD received strong contributions from Nick Faust (scoring in double-figures for the first time since January 22nd vs. Boston College), and the Freshman bigs Charles Mitchell, and Shaq Cleare.

Maryland will be at Georgia Tech (14-11 overall, 4-9 in the ACC) Wednesday night.

The Good:

1) Faust started the game with a jumper from 15 feet. Faust came up with a steal with great anticipation, and finished with a flush to make it 13-12 Clemson. He came off a screen to hit another 3, giving MD a 18-16 lead. Nice look from Faust to Padgett for a basket. A nice deflection from Faust started a fast break in the 2nd half. Shooting with confidence, Faust buried a contested 3, putting MD up 44-35. He hit another 3 (this one wide open), to make it 59-46. He followed that with a steal. Hitting his 4th 3 of the game, the Terps took a 62-49 lead. He ended the game with a nice intermediate jumper. Faust finished with 18 points and 3 steals.

2) Cleare followed his own miss, with a rebound, and a put-back. That put MD up 4-2. Helped out by a nice pass from Wells, Cleare finished at the rim to give MD a 10 point lead at 32-22. Big board from Cleare a minute later. With under 2 minutes left in the half, Cleare scored again. Nice baby hook from Cleare early in the 2nd. Good job sticking with it, and again scoring off his own miss. This pushed the lead to 11 at 51-40. Cleare finished with 10 points, 6 boards.

3) Off a good look from Wells, Mitchell scored inside, making it 10-6 Clemson. He followed a miss from Aronhalt, to make it 10-8. Mitchell grabbed a missed Allen FT, and scored again inside. This pushed MD’s lead to 6 at 26-20. He followed that with a great spin move from the baseline the next time down. 8 points, 6 boards from Mitchell at half-time. His play off the bench was huge. That play earned him a chance to start the 2nd half, and he responded with MD’s first basket in the second 20 minutes. Mitchell finished with 8 points, 7 boards.

4) Shooting over Booker, Len hit a short jumper in the lane. This made it 12-10  Clemson. Scoring just his 2nd basket of the game, Len was set-up well by Howard to get to the rim. With the made FT, this made it 56-40 MD with 11:21 left in the game. The game was effectively over, but Len did some good work late.

5) After missing an open 3 in the corner, Layman came right back and hit his next attempt. This made it 16-15 Clemson. Using his length, Layman came up with a steal and a dunk. Layman had another steal late in the 1st half. Layman had a loud slam, early in the 2nd half. A 3 from the wing, pushed MD’s lead back to 9 at 49-40. Good hustle coming up with a potential turnover from Faust. Layman finished with 12 points.

6) Using a ball screen, Allen sliced to the rim for a layup. This extended MD’s lead to 4 at 20-16. Good decision to pull the ball out from Allen with a little over a minute left in the half. With 1 second left on the shot clock (and 4 seconds left in the half), Allen drew a foul from Clemson and got to the line.

7) Padgett scored inside, making it 22-18 MD. Padgett had 4 boards in the 1st half. Using the rim, Padgett went up and under to make it 53-40.

8) Maryland started off sluggish, with Clemson controlling the tempo. That changed when Turgeon went to an early press. That took the Tigers out of their comfort zone, and got the Terps going.

9) Coming out of an in-bounds, Aronhalt came around several screens to knock down a jumper. This made it 30-22 Terps.

10) Pushing the ball in transition, Wells came up with his 2nd strong pass of the game, finding Cleare. Not giving up on the play, Wells got back down the court to get a block. Nice look from Wells to Layman for a dunk in the 2nd half. He wasn’t scoring today, but good job from Wells distributing the ball.

11) Only 8 turnovers for the Terps today, just outstanding.

12) Howard came up with a steal, pushed the ball in transition, and then slowed it down; setting up Len to get to the rim. Nice play there.

13) As expected, Maryland won on the boards (36-27).

14) The Terps piled up 19 assists on their 30 made baskets today.

The Bad:

1) He followed his own miss and scored, but it was odd seeing Cleare put up an early jumper.

2) Len’s first shot, saw the Sophomore big being pushed out on the block by Booker, and falling away. He followed that with a turnover, and a quick trip to the bench. In the 1st half, Len had just 2 points, and 2 boards. Booker is a strong 250 lb’s, but is just 6’9 to Len’s 7’1. If Len can’t have his way against Booker, that is fairly telling.

3) 4 minutes into the game, Maryland found themselves down 10-4. Clemson started 3-3 from the floor.

4) Aronhalt got the ball back with hustle, but his difficult pass in traffic eliminated a potential fast break. Aronhalt could not come up with a pass from Howard at the top of the key, which led to a Clemson fast-break.

5) With just under 13 minutes left in the 1st half, Layman missed an open 3 in the corner. He missed a couple of FT’s in the 2nd half.

6) Attempting to do a bit much in transition, Howard turned it over with just over 5 minutes left in the 1st half.

7) Maryland had a 10 point lead with 4:30 left in the 1st half, but went to half-time up just 3.

8) Faust was 3 of 4 from the floor 8 minutes into the game, but did not take another shot before half-time. After burying a few more shots in the 2nd half, he threw-up an air-ball on the ‘heat-check.’

9) Wells was 0 for 4 from the floor in the 1st half, and finished just 1 for 7.

10) Quiet game for Allen, with the Freshman making just 1 of his 4 foul shots.

The Ugly:

1) Just 5 shots from the foul-line for the Terps in the 1st half, with MD making just 1 of their attempts. For the game, MD was just 6 of 16.

Chris Stoner
Chris Stoner

Owner

Chris Stoner founded Baltimore Sports and Life in 2009. He has appeared as a radio guest with 1090 WBAL, 105.7 The Fan, CBS 1300, Q1370, WOYK 1350, WKAV 1400, and WNST 1570. He has also been interviewed by The Baltimore Sun, Baltimore Business Journal, and PressBox (TV). As Owner, his responsibilities include serving as the Managing Editor, Publicist, & Sales Director.

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