MD eliminates Duke; The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

Beating Duke for the 2nd time this season, the University of Maryland advanced to the semi-finals of the Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament.

With the 83-74 win, the Terrapins not only have greatly improved their NCAA Tournament resume, they have moved closer to capturing the program’s 4th ACCT Championship. Will Maryland have their dance-card punched when selections to the NCAA Tournament are announced Sunday night? That is to be determined. What matters is that the Terrapins have extended their season another day, and have a chance to grab another win tomorrow.

Wells really carried Maryland again tonight, making a statement with his early dunk, and finishing things off with his free-throws. Wells scored a career high 30 points.

The Good:

1) Layman put MD on the board first, hitting an open 3. Following a miss from Len, Layman got to the line. Hitting the 2 FT’s, MD went up 10-2. At 28-21, Layman had a great hustle play to maintain possession. Layman had 8 boards at the half. Hitting his first shot of the 2nd half, MD went up 37-28 on his 3. After missing a 3, Layman took his man to the rim on his next attempt, scoring to put MD up 54-48. Layman finished with 10 points, and 9 boards.

2) An early highlight, as Wells put MD up 5-0 with an emphatic dunk. He followed with a 3, to make it 8-2. Hitting a jumper from the baseline, the Terps took a 10 point lead at 12-2. He then forced a turnover from Duke. Pushing the ball to the rim, Wells put MD back up 7 at 17-10. Wells hit another 3, making it 20-14. Just continuing to explode to the rim, he scored on a layup the next time down. He went right past Kelly, and scored on the reverse. Another jumper from the baseline put MD up 28-19. After fouling Curry on the other end, Wells went right back to the rim, forcing the issue vs. Duke. Wells scored his 2nd basket of the 2nd half with 7 minutes left in regulation, going to the basket after a Duke miss. Good job of catching Duke sleeping. Using his strength, Wells scored again to make it 69-60. With 2 minutes left, and MD up 6, the ball went back to Wells, and he got to the line. Wells finished with 30 points, 9 of 13 from the floor, 6 boards, 3 assists.

3) Great start for MD, as they put some early points on the board, and were contesting shots from Duke. The Terps went to half-time leading 34-26.

4) Working hard to get open off multiple screens, Allen drilled a 3 to make it 15-8. Another 3 with 1 minute left in the half, made it 34-26 Terps. Duke had pulled within 2, when Allen scored inside to make it 43-39. After turning it over the previous time down, Allen had a beautiful pass to Mitchell after splitting the double team. Another great drive and dish from Allen, finding Len for a slam. Allen had 10 points, and 5 assists.

5) Mitchell had an outstanding defensive possession out on the perimeter against the smaller, and quicker Cook. Mitchell did a good job fighting for the ball, with MD up 41-37, keeping possession for MD on the forced jump ball. Mitchell finished a good look from Allen, to make it 47-44 Terps. With Duke looking to tie the game, Mitchell slid in to take the charge from Plumlee.

6) Len’s first basket came on a slam, putting MD up 24-14. A jumper from Len made it 45-39 MD. Good look from Len to find Faust for an open 3. Another Len slam, made it 59-52 MD. A jumper from Len made it 63-52 MD with 6:30 left.  Nice block from Len with MD up 7 with 3 minutes left. He followed with a dunk on the other-end. Len finished with 10 points, and 8 boards.

7) Fouled while exploding to the rim, Faust knocked down 2 FT’s to make it 26-14. Faust knocked down an open (and needed) 3, to make it 31-24 with 2 minutes left in the 1st half. Early in the 2nd half, Faust hit a jumper from the foul line, putting MD up 39-28. Faust buried another open 3, to put the Terps up 7 at 57-50. Faust had 10 points.

8) Nice shooting from outside in the 1st half for MD, as the Terps hit 6 of their 13 attempts. For the game, the Terps were 8 of 20 from 3.

9) In the 1st half, the Terps limited Duke to just 5 foul-shots.

10) Just 7 turnovers for Maryland in the 1st half, which was very impressive against the ball pressure of Duke. For the game, MD turned it over just 14 times. Which is just terrific against the Blue Devils.

11) Howard had 4 assists vs. 0 turnovers at the half. 5 assists vs. 0 turnovers for the game. In the middle of the 2nd half, Howard earned a blocking foul on Hairston, knifing his way to the rim. Howard had 7 points, all from the line.

12) Showing touch from 10 feet, Cleare hit his first shot, putting MD up 50-46. Cleare would just not budge against Plumlee, and got his hands on a shot from Curry. He came back down the court, and scored again.

13) When MD got to the foul line, they did an excellent job of hitting their shots. The Terps were 23 of 25 from the line.

14) Duke had a horrible game shooting from 3. Most of that  was probably them just being off, but MD gets some credit for their perimeter defense.

15) Maryland won on the boards 36-26, with the gap increasing in the 2nd half.

16) The Terps had 18 assists on their 26 made FG’s.

The Bad:

1) In the first few minutes of the game, Len missed a put back off a miss from Layman, and missed a running hook shot across the lane. Coming out of a timeout, Len missed a 3. With 3 minutes left in the 1st half, Len turned it over with extra steps. Len had just 2 points, and 3 boards at the half.

2) Coming out of a timeout, Wells turned it over trying to find Len in the post. At 28-19, MD blew a 3 on 1 fast-break, when Wells could not finish. He probably needed to pass off on that play. Early in the 2nd half, Wells fouled Curry on a 3 point attempt. Curry made the 3, and his FT for his first 4 points of the game. Maryland was up 69-62, with 3:26 left in the game when Wells took an ugly spill.

3) Seconds after entering the game, Cleare was called for a moving screen.

4) Allen was called for a carry. At 15-10, Allen missed a layup. At 45-41 MD, Allen just gave the ball to Duke with a careless pass. With MD up 11 with 5 minutes left, Allen had the all knocked away from him. Leading by 8 with a minute left, Allen turned it over.

5) Duke had been down 12-2, when they answered with 4 points, Faust came down the court and fired an a quick and errant 3. This led to an easy basket for Duke.

6) Mitchell’s first shot was him fading away from 12 feet.

7) Much like the game in Durham, Sulaimon was a factor.

8) At 26-17 MD, Howard missed an open 3.

9) With 1:40 left in the 1st half, Faust drove down the lane, but could not knock down his short runner. With 30+ seconds left, Faust turned it over, when MD should have had the last shot of the half. At 43-39 in the 2nd half, Faust turned it over trying to find Len. With 3 minutes left in regulation, Faust turned the ball over. Then on the next possession, he missed a layup. Up 6 with 2:15 left, Faust turned it over again, just never having a good handle on the ball. Faust finished with 5 turnovers, and was just 3 of 9 from the floor.

10) Maryland shot just 4 FT’s in the 1st half.

11) With 4:20 left, Layman was not able to come down with an offensive rebound.

12) After a run of recent starts, Padgett did not get off the bench tonight. Was he unavailable for some reason? With the results tonight, not sure this was a ‘bad’ thing, but interesting to note.

The Ugly:

1) None. Duke is a team with National Title aspirations, and Maryland took it to them from the opening tip.