The University of Maryland Terrapins had their best outing of the year, beating Georgia Teach 77-61. With the win, MD improves to 10-5 overall, and 2-0 in the Atlantic Coast Conference.
It will be a quick turn-around for the Terps, as they now head north to face Pittsburgh Monday night.
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What did we see?
1) Maryland began the game with a 12-2 run, and had a strong 1st half overall. The Terps went to the locker-room with a 14 point lead (43-29). In the first 20 minutes, they shot 51.5% (17-33), including 7 of 12 from 3. Besides their hot shooting from outside, one other key of MD’s start was that they had just 3 1st half turnovers.
The play was closer in the 2nd half, but MD was in-complete control throughout. For the game, MD shot 47% from the floor, including 10 of 19 from 3.
Only 6 turnovers for MD today, an excellent job of not wasting possessions.
2) Nick Faust had a huge game vs. NC Central (19 points, 9 boards) off the bench. He followed that up, with three 3’s in the 1st half today. Faust’s 4th 3 put MD up 59-44 with 11:11 left. For the game, Faust finished with a team high 16 points (6 of 8 from the floor, 4 of 6 from 3), 3 boards, 1 assist, and 1 steal.
3) The Terrapins early run was keyed by a monster slam from Wells coming down the lane. Wells missed a lot of the 1st half, after picking up his 2nd foul. Wells had a quiet game, finishing with 11 points, 3 boards, and 2 assists. He was 3 of 8 from the floor, with 5 made FT’s.
4) It was a great 1st half for the Freshman Roddy Peters, who had 5 assists vs. 0 turnovers. He was also providing good defense on Georgia Tech’s Trae Golden. Peters put MD up 20, with 3 points the old-fashioned way. Peters finished with 5 points, those 5 assists, 1 block, and no turnovers.
5) The only thing off about the 1st half for MD was Seth Allen, who was just 1 of 6 from the floor. A layup from Allen, put MD up 56-42 with under 12 minutes left. A pull-up 3 put MD up 20 (64-44) with 8:35 left. Allen had 10 points (3 of 8 from the floor), and 2 assists.
6) Cleare got the start at Center, in-part to contend with the size of Daniel Miller. Cleare started MD’s scoring with a jumper in the lane. Cleare also had MD’s first basket of the 2nd half, scoring inside while being fouled. Another basket inside put MD up 61-44. His big body, was unable to be moved by Miller all day. Cleare finished with 8 points, and 2 boards.
7) Georgia Tech is a good rebounding team, but were without the services of Robert Carter Jr today, who leads the Yellow Jackets at 9.3 boards per game. At the half, MD and GaTech were tied at 15 boards each. For the game, Georgia Tech won on the boards 36-34.
8) Mitchell had some positive play off the bench in the 1st half, with his 6 points and 5 boards (4 defensive). Mitchell finished with 6 points, 11 boards (9 defensive), 1 assist, 1 steal, and 1 block. Really great effort from Mitchell today.
9) Smotrycz was tied with Faust with the team lead in scoring (9 points) in the 1st half. Smotrcyz was 4 of 7 from the floor. One of those baskets was a nice step-back jumper a foot or two behind the FT line, and another was him using his size to score inside over a smaller defender. Smotrycz finished with 14 points, 5 boards, 3 assists, and 2 steals.
10) MD had just 3 FT attempts in the 1st half. For the game, MD was 11 of 17 from the charity stripe.
11) Layman hit 2 early 3’s, but spent a large portion of the 1st half on the bench after picking up his 2nd foul. Those two 3’s were it for Layman today, as he finished with 6 points and 4 boards.
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