On a snowy night in College Park, the University of Maryland Terrapins were attempting to defend their home court against a quality North Carolina team. Down as much as 16 points in the 2nd half, MD closed the deficit to 6, but could get no closer losing 79-68.

With the loss, the Terps fall to 20-10 overall, and 8-9 in the Atlantic Coast Conference. This was a missed opportunity for Maryland to improve their NCAA Tournament resume (UNC had entered the game 20th overall in RPI, with the 16th best Strength of Schedule, and 29th in the Ken Pom Rankings), and clearly means the Terps will need to do significant damage in the ACC Tournament if they want do dance – regardless of what happens at Virginia this weekend.

The Good:

1) Getting the start on Senior night, Padgett scored off his own miss, giving MD their first points of the game. Backing down Hairston, Padgett scored to make it 20-19 UNC. Coming up with a board on a miss from Len, Padgett scored inside to give MD the 21-20 lead. Padgett finished with 9 points, and 7 boards.

2) Wells hit a jumper from the foul line for his first basket, making it a 7-4 UNC game. He went hard to the rim, getting to the foul line. Making his 2nd foul shot, he tied the game at 12. The Terps were down 20-14, when Wells hit a needed 3. Wells had MD’s first points of the 2nd half, getting to the line on a UNC blocking foul. Great block from Wells with MD down 44-31. Down 16, he spun to the rim for a layup. Again going hard to the basket, Wells scored, and got to the line. This made it 51-38 with his FT. Wells hit a long 2pt jumper, grabbed an air-ball from UNC, and pushed the ball up the floor – finding Faust who earned a trip to the line. Wells had 18 points, 6 boards, 3 steals.

3) Len made an adjustment on a lob from Wells, finishing a layup to make it 12-6 Carolina. Len followed Faust’s miss with a slam to make it 12-11 UNC. Len came up with a loose ball, and threw down a reverse slam to put MD up 23-22. Len’s first basket of the 2nd half came with him clearing up a board underneath. This made it 39-31 UNC. At 45-33 UNC, Len got to the FT line. Len had 8 points, 7 boards.

4) Coming off the bench, Faust buried a 3 off a screen. He followed that with a steal. Driving and scoring, Faust went off the back-board with a short jumper in the lane for his 2nd basket. After missing a couple of 3’s, Faust drove hard down the lane, giving MD the 25-24 lead with his layup. Coming off a screen, Faust hit another short jumper in the lane. Spectacular baseline drive for Faust, to make it a 12 point game. Two FT’s made it 61-50. Faust hit a 3 with 6:08 left to make it 63-57. Faust had 16 points, and 2 steals.

5) Great hustle save from Howard, with UNC up 20-19.

6) After missing his 3rd shot, Allen got back down the court, and made an impressive help block.

7) Getting position deep in the post, Mitchell scored to make it 44-33. Nice move from him. He raced to the other end for the block.

8) Using pressure, MD got a steal, and Layman scored. Another UNC turnover, led to Layman’s 2nd straight breakaway basket to make it 51-42. A Layman steal and basket made it 63-54. Layman finished with 8 points, and 3 boards.

9) With 9 minutes left in the game, Allen finally scored. Getting deep in the lane, and hitting a short jumper. He hit another jumper to make it 63-52. Allen got his hands on the ball to force a steal, which led to a 3 from Faust.

The Bad:

1) Maryland turned it over on their 1st possession, leading to a UNC dunk.

2) Down 7-2 early, Howard threw up an errant 3 with lots of time left on the shot-clock. Howard lost the ball to start the 2nd half, leading to a UNC basket, as the Tar Heels extended their lead to 9 at 36-27.

3) Carolina led 12-4 to start the game, hitting 5 of their first 6 shots.

4) A poor pass from Padgett, as he just threw it out of bounds with MD down 12-6.

5) With the game tied at 12, Faust was in position for a defensive rebound, but did not come down with the ball. At 18-14 Carolina, Faust attempted a deep 3 early in a possession. It was a bit of an unneeded ‘heat-check.’ At 22-21 UNC, Faust badly missed an open 3. Down 16 (51-35), Faust lost the ball in traffic.

6) Faust penetrated into the lane, and found Allen for an open look from 3. However, Allen missed everything on his first shot of the game. Good ball movement gave Allen another open look from outside, but Allen missed his 2nd shot as well. As the 1st half was ending, Allen missed his 5th shot attempt, and 3rd shot from 3. Down 66-57 with a little over 5 minutes left, Allen turned it over. He then bricked a wide open shot with 4:30 left.

7) Layman’s first shot attempt came off a curl with him falling away, a foot inside the 3 point line. At 39-31, Layman was not able to come up cleanly with a low pass from Allen. Attempting to go to the basket, Layman picked up a charge.

8) Careless turnover from Wells, with MD down 1 at 22-21. Trailing 29-27, Wells missed everything on his air-ball with a minute left in the half. 20 seconds later he lost the handle on the ball, and followed that with a foul. At 36-29 in the 2nd half, Wells missed an open 3. Down 53-42, Wells missed another open 3. Wells had 4 of MD’s 14 turnovers.

9) Aronhalt was 0 for 3 from 3 in the 1st half. He continued to miss in the 2nd half, including an open look with 2:30 left, finishing 0 for 5.

10) At the half, MD had shot just 2 FT’s. For the game, just 15 attempts.

11) Len’s first shot of the 2nd half was a jumper from 18 feet. At 45-33, Len missed 2 FT’s.

12) ESPN’s Fraschilla was talking about how MD was attempting to feed the post, from the foul line extended, and that they have to take better angles on their passes.

13) Horrible in-bounds from MD coming off of a timeout, with MD down 44-31.

The Ugly:

1) UNC went on a 10-0 run to end the half, giving the Tar Heels a 34-27 lead at the break. Going into the 2nd half, this overall run was 20-4, putting UNC up 44-31 with 15:21 left in the game.

2) At the half, only 4 Maryland players had scored (Faust, Padgett, Len, and Wells). The other Terps players were 0 for 13 from the floor.

2a) Allen, Howard, and Aronhalt combined to go 2 for 19 from the floor.

3) The Terps were 2 of 14 from 3 in the 1st half. For the game, just 3 of 23. Not only was the shooting % horrible, Maryland spent too many possessions not taking advantage of their size inside.

4) ESPN started their telecast relaying Coach Turgeon telling them the sole emphasis in practice had been perimeter defense in recent days. UNC was 10 of 24.

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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