The University of Maryland snapped a two game losing streak (and dating back to last year, a 8 game road losing streak) with a 64-62 victory at Littlejohn Coliseum against the Clemson Tigers. With the win, the Terrapins improve to 14-9 overall, 4-5 in the Atlantic Coast Conference.

MD had a 14 point lead with roughly 7:30 left in the game, but Clemson came charging back. Give the Terps credit for doing just enough to leave with the win.

The Good:

1) Padgett tied the game at 6, on a good feed from Pankey. Padgett had 8 points, 5 boards.

2) After getting blocked at the rim on a previous attempt, Pankey went up stronger and finished a dunk to give MD the 12-10 lead. In the 2nd half, Pankey put the Terps up 32-27 when he backed down his defender and scored. Pankey finished with 6 points, 9 boards.

3) Faust emphatically finished a nasty dunk, on a tremendous interior pass from Howard. Faust had 5 boards.

4) Jumping the pass, Stoglin had an easy steal and finish to put MD up by 4 (23-19). Clemson had pulled within 2 (32-30), when Stoglin buried a 3 coming off a curl on an in-bounds pass. When the Tigers took a 14 point MD lead down to 6 (53-47), Stoglin answered with another 3. Stoglin finished with 27 points, and 4 steals. He was 9 of 11 from the floor, 4 of 6 from 3, 5 of 6 from the FT line.

5) Mosley buried an open 3 in the 1st half, and got the Terps on the board in the 2nd half with a little turnaround jumper after backing down his defender. He hit a couple of other 3’s to put MD up 8 (40-32), and later 14 (46-32). Mosley finished with 15 points, 4 assists,

6) MD is a better team overall when they limit their 3 point attempts, but they shot well from outside tonight (9 of 15).

7) The Terps were more composed in the 2nd half. MD had 9 turnovers in the initial 20 minutes, but only 6 in the second 20.

8) Len’s only basket came with 1 minute left, but it was an important finish.

The Bad:

1) Pankey was not able to finish a good look from Howard, when he was blocked at the rim. Later, Howard was blocked underneath the rim, on an attempted lay-up. This would happen again later in the first half.  Not to be outdone, Padgett and Weijs (twice) would also blow shots at point-blank range. A conversion rate of 100% might not be practical, but MD was giving away too many easy points.

2) From 15:22 to in the 1st half, until the 9:44 mark, MD was held without a FG. During that time-frame the Terps had 3 turnovers.

3) With the game tied at 8, MD did not get the shot they wanted, when they settled for a 17 foot jumper from Weijs.

4) Howard and Parker gave away possessions with lazy turnovers. Howard threw the ball to no one, and Parker dribbled off himself out of bounds.

5) At the 1:47 of the 1st half, the Terps had a 6 point lead (26-20). Instead of stretching their lead, they missed their two shot attempts, and turned the ball over twice as well.

6) On Saturday, MD was competitive on the boards against the best rebounding team in the country. Today, against one of the worst rebounding teams, MD should have done a better job of controlling the boards. Clemson won on the boards 31-30.

7) Len had a couple of boards in the 2nd half, and that very important late basket; but was basically M.I.A. tonight. It is a struggle for Freshman to be consistent, but after the outings against Miami, and UNC; tonight was a step-back for the Ukrainian big.

8) Down the stretch, Howard twice missed the front-end of a 1 and 1. With just over a minute left, Stoglin missed 1 of his 2 attempts, Len missed his foul shot, and Mosley split his two.

9) The Terrapins have done an excellent job all season of getting to the foul line. They finished with 17 attempts, but the majority of those were in the closing minutes.

The Ugly:

1) In the first 12+ minutes of the game, Clemson was getting too many extra shots. At the 7:40 mark of the 1st half, the Tigers had attempted 23 shots, to MD’s 11.

2) The Terps were up 14, with 7:30 to play, when they allowed Andre Young to hit his fourth 3 of the half, off the in-bounds. MD has been beat on in-bounds plays numerous times this year. By the 5:15 mark, Clemson had reduced that lead to 6. With 2 minutes left, the lead was just a basket.

3) MD was up 3 (61-58) when Howard fouled Young on a 3 point attempt in the games closing seconds. You can not fall for the fake there, you have to make him make that shot vs. putting him on the line (regardless of the end-result).

Up-Next:

Maryland will be on the road again Saturday, this time traveling to Durham to face the Blue Devils. The Terrapins will be playing with the opportunity to get back to .500, as they look for the upset. Duke, who travels to UNC tomorrow, has lost recent home games to FSU and Miami.

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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