The University of Maryland Terrapins were denied their 4th consecutive win, as they were beat by #5 Duke 80-62 at home in the Comcast Center. In a familiar story in this 2010-11 season, the Terps had their chances to beat a high quality team, but could not break-through.
With the loss, MD is now 14-8 overall, and 4-4 in the Atlantic Coast Conference. The first-half of the ACC schedule is now over, and with two head-to-head losses to Duke, MD can not hope to contend for the regular-season conference title.
Among MD’s 8 losses are the following games:
9 point loss vs. Pittsburgh (currently 4th Nationally) on a neutral-floor.
4 point loss vs. Illinois (was 13th Nationally at the time) on a neutral-floor.
3 point loss vs. Temple (16-5, 6-2 in the A10) on a neutral-floor.
7 point loss @ Duke.
8 point loss @ Villanova (currently 12th Nationally).
Not having won one of those games, is severely hurting Maryland’s overall resume.
I still think MD will finish 21-10 overall, and 10-6 in the ACC (prior to the ACCT) and have a very good chance advancing to the tournament.
The Good:
1) Down 15 points, MD went on a 10-2 run to close the 1st half and get back into the game. Down 13 points in the 2nd half, the Terps closed the game to 5. The final score ballooned because MD spent so much energy getting back into the games, they had very little left in the end. Still, I respect the Terps for twice working back from larger deficits to give themselves a chance at the upset.
2) By continuing to attack the rim, the Terps did an excellent job of drawing contact and getting to the line. For the 2nd consecutive game, MD converted a decent percentage (20 of 27) of shots at the charity stripe. Of course there was the added benefit of getting the Duke bigs in foul trouble.
2a) Give Jordan Williams credit for hitting 12 of his 16 attempts.
3) Off in-bounds and misses, I thought the Freshman MD PG’s Howard and Stoglin did a good job of pushing the ball.
4) Playing a strong defensive team, the Terps had just 11 turnovers.
The Bad:
1) MD lost on the boards 33-28 and allowed Duke to grab too many offensive rebounds (10) and get second looks.
2) Duke has a bunch of quality shooters, and sometimes they are just going to knock down shots. I thought MD’s perimeter defense suffered in-part tonight because defenders were sagging off the outside shooters to help against Mason Plumlee, and Singler.
3) Singler and Smith are legitimate 1st-team All-American players, and both hit an abundance of difficult shots. I think MD should have done a better job of taking away at-least one of the two players.
4) After battling to end the 1st half and scraping the deficit to 7, Maryland came out poorly to begin the last 20 minutes. A combination of turnovers, and missed opportunities saw the Duke lead balloon right back to 13.
5) Maryland again rallies, and narrows the deficit to 5 with 9:24 left in the game. The Terps had a couple of wasted possessions, and did not work the ball into Williams.
6) Gregory picked up his 4th foul with about 7:30 left, and was not on the court when Duke rebounded a missed Singler free-throw. Duke would capitalize with a Curry 3.
The Ugly:
1) Williams got to the line 16 times, but had just 7 Field Goal attempts. Considering the foul-trouble of the Duke bigs, MD should have had an even more concerted effort to get the ball inside to Williams on basically every possession.
2) Against Georgia Tech, Mosley finally showed some offense. Tonight, he was again non-existent. Similarly, Tucker did not step-up and provide the scoring the Terps needed from him.
3) Bowie missed a few lay-ups, but overall he had a decent game. 11 points, 5 assists, 4 boards. What was ugly was his 4 turnovers, particularly the first couple of plays to start the 2nd half.
Up-Next:
A week from tonight, the Terps will have two more wins under their belts as they will beat Wake Forest Saturday, and Longwood next Tuesday.
I know some will say you should not take wins for granted, but MD is not losing to those teams. What will matter is again seeing where the Terps can improve before very important games at Boston College, and at Virginia Tech.
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.