Terps win at VaTech; The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

The University of Maryland Terrapins improved to 17-6 overall, and 5-5 in the Atlantic Coast Conference, with a 60-55 win at Virginia Tech.

The Good:

1) Layman got MD on the board, and an early 3-2 lead, hitting a triple from corner. Another 3 from the same spot made it 8-4 MD. Layman got a steal, and an emphatic slam for a 10-6 MD lead. With under 8 minutes left in the 1st, Layman came up with a loose ball, and attacked the rim again. He was fouled, and got to the line. Still chucking, Layman hit a 3 early in the 2nd half. Stepping in, he hit a jumper from 14 feet to put MD up 31-27, and force VaTech into a timeout. Layman had 14 points, and 5 boards.

2) Off a good pass from Padgett, Len was able to finish for his first basket. He did so against traffic, and even though he brought the ball down low. Len had an early block as well. Stealing a rebound away from Raines, Len followed with a dunk to make it 18-8. On the defensive end on the next possession, he had a block in help defense. This would lead to a shot-clock violation on VaTech. With a minute left, and MD holding on to a 1 point lead, the ball went into Len. He got fouled, and got to the line. Len had 10 points, 5 boards, and 2 blocks.

3) Allen came in off the bench, and knocked down a 3 right away. This put MD up 13-6. Nice pass from Allen to Padgett for a slam. Another 3 from Allen made it 21-10 Terps. Allen had 7 points.

4) Padgett got his first basket on a dunk, from a good look from Allen. Padgett’s 2nd basket came off another good pass, this time from Wells. This put MD up 24-22. Good tap-in from Padgett off a miss from Len. Padgett had a hustle rebound off a missed Allen 3 with about 9:30 left in the game. Padgett finished with 8 points, 10 boards, and 2 blocks.

5) Nice aggressive rebound from Wells at 15-8 MD. He followed that by getting to the rim, and getting to the line. Good look from Wells to Padgett with a little over 3 minutes left in the 1st. Good outlet pass to Faust to start the 2nd half. A 3 from Wells, gave MD an 8 point (38-30) lead. After missing a 3, Wells hustled after the ball, and found Padgett (who was fouled). On a drive and dish, Wells found Len for a basket. Another 3 from Wells made it 51-46 with 7 minutes left. Wells finished with 8 points, 9 boards, and 5 assists.

6) At 21-13 MD, Faust drove the baseline, and found a cutting Padgett. Padgett would get fouled, and go to the line. Faust scored right away to start the 2nd half, breaking away for a dunk. Attacking, Faust earned a blocking foul on Raines.  He would score again minutes later, cutting to the rim. Important rebound from Faust with 30 seconds left. He would then hit 2 foul shots, to make it a 2 possession game.

7) Mitchell had 4 rebounds off the bench in the 1st half. Two FT’s from Mitchell put MD up 40-34. Big board from Mitchell at 51-48 MD. Another strong board at the 4 minute mark. Mitchell finished with 9 boards.

8) Great start for MD in the 2nd half, coming out and scoring the first 9 points. They clearly had increased their intensity, and seemed to understand how important it was for them to leave Blacksburg with the win.

9) Nice up and under from Howard in the 2nd half. On the following possession, he found Aronhalt with a good assist on the fast-break. Another great look from Howard to Len for a dunk.

10) Incredibly important 3 from Aronhalt with 4:30 left, to give MD a 5 point lead.

11) The Terps won on the boards, 42-28.

12) Maryland did a good job of limiting the turnovers tonight, finishing with just 14.

The Bad:

1) Virgina Tech started the game with a dunk.

2) Wells had MD’s first turnover, throwing a cross-court pass to Layman out of bounds. Another Wells turnover led to a steal from Green, and a layup. Wells was charged with a walk with 3 minutes left. With 2:20 left, he missed the front-end of a 1&1.

3) Faust had MD’s second turnover, on an ill-advised pass. At 15-8 MD, Faust picked up a charge. Another unforced error from MD, when Faust turned it over in the lane off a jump-stop with 4:45 left in the 1st. With MD leading 33-29, Faust missed 2 shots at the line. At 38-32 MD, Faust missed a wide open 3. There was also room existing for him to attack the rim.

4) Raines went up and under Len, making it 13-8 MD. Teams are having a lot of success with that play against Len. At 22-20 MD, Len went up for a rebound off a missed VaTech FT, but knocked the ball out of bounds. At 38-34, Len was not ready for a pass from Wells.

5) Layman had 8 points in the first 4 minutes of play, but then quickly found his way out of the game. After his dunk with 16:39 left in the 1st, his next shot attempt came with 8:24 left. That would be an air-ball. Over the next few minutes, he would miss twice more. With under a minute left in the 1st, he missed again. Layman did not have his hand up on Green’s 3, which pulled the Hokies within 2 at 46-44.

6) At 21-13 MD, Padgett missed both of his foul shots. He got the rebound off of his 2nd foul shot, and turned it over with a poor pass. The next time down the court, he had another turnover underneath the basket. With MD up 46-41, Padgett missed 2 more FT’s.

7) Attempting to split a double team in the lane, Allen turned it over with about 6:30 left in the 1st. With 4 minutes left in the game, Allen just gave the ball away.

8) Green hit a 3, to put VaTech up 27-24 with 2:02 left in the 1st. This was the Hokies first lead of the night, as Howard got caught sagging off of Green.

9) Down 27-24, MD was charged with a shot-clock violation. For some reason, Coach Turgeon had both Padgett and Howard on the court at the same time, allowing the Hokies to play 5-3 on with their defense.

10) MD had 26 FG attempts in the 1st half, 1/2 of them coming from 3.

11) The only thing on Cleare’s stat-line in the 1st half was 2 fouls. At 38-34, Cleare was not able to come up with a missed VaTech shot, knocking the ball out of bounds. As the Hokies kept the ball, Cleare would pick up a foul on an attempted dunk from Van Zegeren.

12) At 51-48, Mitchell missed 2 foul shots. A minute later, he would have his shot blocked from behind.

The Ugly:

1) A Seth Allen 3 with 10:04 left in the 1st half, made it 21-10 MD. The Terps would score 3 points the rest of the half, while allowing 17.

2) At half-time, Wells and Faust had combined for 1 point, going 0 for 6 from the floor, with 5 turnovers. If you added Len, the trio combined for 5 points over the first 20 minutes.

3) MD was just 10 of 23 from the foul line.

4) With 10 seconds left, Wells turned the ball over. Stopping the clock, and putting VaTech on the line.