Terps beat #14 NCST; The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

The University of Maryland ended a 2 game losing streak, beating #14 NCST 51-50. The winning basket coming with less than a second left in the game. With the victory, the Terrapins improve to 14-3 overall, and 2-2 in the Atlantic Coast Conference.

The Good:

1) Nice job on defense from Len on Leslie to start the game. This continued over the first 5 minutes with Leslie being clearly uncomfortable with Len’s size and athleticism. Great pass from Len to Cleare for a dunk in the opening minutes. Good jumper in the middle of the key From Len, early in the 2nd.  Big rebound from Len off a miss from Wells with 6 minutes left. After NCST claimed their first lead, the ball went back to Len. Len’s dunk with 2 minutes left, put MD back up 1. That was followed by him swatting Leslie out of bounds. Len scored the game winner, with a put back on Howard’s miss with less than a second left.

2) Wells got MD on the board first, with a jumper from the baseline. As a help defender, Wells got back for an early block. Wells had a nice assist to Cleare, early in the 2nd. Wells put MD up 10 (42-32) with a layup in the middle of the 2nd.

3) Back in the starting lineup, Cleare did a good job using his muscle on Howell.  Cleare got his first basket on a dunk, coming off a pass from Len. Nice cut from Cleare to find a pass from Faust for his 2nd basket. At 10-0, Cleare ripped down a layup.

4) Allen put MD up 6-0 with a drive and finish. Another drive and score extended the lead to 8-0. At the 10 minute mark of the 1st, he again got the rim, this time going to the line. Beautiful pass from Allen to Cleare for a basket at the 16 minute mark of the 2nd half.  Challenging Howell at the rim, Allen was blocked. Bilas said that situation called for a floater. An Allen 3, broke an 8-0 NCST run.

5) Faust did a good job finding Cleare for a layup, and extending the lead to 10-0. A Faust dunk with under a minute left in the 1st, put Md up 22-16. Nice drive and finish from Faust to begin the 2nd half. That was followed by a jumper from the wing. Faust had 8 boards, and did a decent when running the offense.

6) NCST was held scoreless over the initial 6 minutes of the game, and just 16 for the 1st half.  Coach Turgeon said at halftime the defense was great. For the game, the Terps held NCST to just 31% from the floor.

7) Mitchell entered the game, and threw some bows corralling his first rebound. Mitchell chased his own miss, getting the follow, and putting MD up 20-16. On an in-bounds, Mitchell got his hand out, causing a steal.

8) On the ESPN telecast, Jay Bilas lauded the MD help-side defense.

9) Howard got on the board in ACC play, with a layup at the 4 minute mark of the 1st half. Another tip-in from Howard, put the Terps up 18-15. Shooting in rhythm, Howard knocked down a 3, putting MD up 9 at 40-31. Howard had 7 points, 5 boards, 2 assists, and 2 steals.

10) In the first 3 minutes of the 2nd half, MD did a good job of continuing to attack the rim.

11) Padgett followed a Len miss, for his first basket. This gave MD a 34-30 lead.

12) Coming off an in-bounds, Layman curled around a screen and buried a 3.

13) Maryland had just 13 turnovers.

14) Maryland got a signature win over a quality foe. It was not pretty, but MD found a way to win.

The Bad:

1) Allen dribbled the ball out of bounds at the 18:23 mark, early in the 1st half.

2) As the shot-clock ticked down with under 16 minutes left in the 1st, Len’s attempted lay-up went hard off the backboard. Len was called for a charge with 8:30 left in the 1st half. At 30-21, Faust was not able to finish a layup (Bilas said he was fouled), but Len was not able to put back as basket for a 3rd time in the game. At 37-31, Len settled for a fade-away jump hook as opposed to going to the rim.

3) Howard missed everything on a 3 attempt with 12 minutes left in the 1st half. Howard could have got a better look for Cleare had he dribble in from outside the key. Bad pass from Howard at the 2:30 mark of the 1st half. After making one 3, Howard got a bit greedy.

4) Up 12-4, Faust threw-up an air ball. The shot-clock was winding down, but he settled for a bad shot. With MD up 14-13, he did not go up strong. An ill-advised 3 point attempt from Faust led to a power slam on the other-end from Lorenzo Brown. Faust was open, but he took kind of a flat-footed 3 with just over 3 minutes left. Faust was just 3 of 10 from the floor.

5) Coming out of a timeout, with under 11 minutes left in the 1st, Mitchell forced and missed a shot. Leading 20-16, Mitchell turned it over with steps.

6) Wells overran a layup attempt with about 9 and 1/2 minutes left in the 1st. Wells was not able to finish on a reverse in the 2nd. With a chance to bring the building to their feet, Wells was not able to finish a breakaway slam. Wells shot and missed a 3 with 6 minutes left, exactly the shot NCST hoped he would take. Wells was just 2 of 11 from the floor.

7) The Terps were not able to find Wood in transition, and Wood knocked down a 3 to make a it a 14-13 MD lead. At the 8:30 mark in the 2nd, Wood again had an open look coming off of a NCST rebound.

8) MD allowed an 8-0 run (making it 42-40), as the Terps struggled to handle NCST’s change to a zone defense.

9) MD was 3 of 18 from 3 point land, with Aronhalt having just 1 of those attempts.

10) The Terps were not able to win on the boards.

11) An offensive foul from Cleare, give NCST back the ball with 5 minutes left in the game.

12) NCST’s first lead of the night, came on a 3 from Wood with 4:30 left in the 2nd half. This culminated a 16-3 Wolfpack run over the previous 5 minutes.

13) As often as MD was going inside, they were only able to get to the foul line 8 times.

14) Howard had a nice interior pass to Padgett, that the Senior PF could not catch. Padgett did not come up with a needed defensive rebound with under a minute left.

15) Only Len scored in double-figures.

The Ugly:

1) It was a sell out crowd for Maryland, but there were plenty of empty seats to start the game. Not exactly an extremely hostile environment.

2) While Coach Turgeon was happy with the 1st half defense, he was rightfully not pleased with the offense. Things did not improve in the 2nd half. The Terps finished the night shooting just 34% from the floor.