Wells leads MD over Wake; The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

Not a lot went right for the University of Maryland today, but they did have Dez Wells on their side. Wells’ 11 of 12 performance from the floor, was enough for the Terrapins to leave Winston-Salem as 67-57 winners over Wake Forest.

With the win, Maryland improves to 20-9 overall, and gets back to .500 in the Atlantic Coast Conference at 8-8.

The Good:

1) Len blocked Wake on Wake’s first shot, leading to a fast-break, and Maryland’s first points of the day. Scoring of an in-bounds under the WF basket, Len had his first FG of the day, putting the Terps up 7-3. At 59-55, Len had an important block, and followed with a long-jumper. Len was quiet most of the game, but down the stretch had a few important boards.

2) Faust got into the lane, and scored on a running 1 handed shot to give the Terps a 4-3 lead. After blowing an easy layup, Faust finished his next attempt, while being fouled. Making the FT, MD went up 47-41. Faust created a WF turnover, and delivered a good pass to Wells for a layup. An aggressive move led to another short jumper in the lane, pushing the lead to 6 late. Two foul shots from Faust in the last minute. Faust finished with 9 points.

3) Getting position in the post, Padgett scored a jump hook, giving MD a 9-7 lead. Another jump hook late in the 1st half, put the Terps up 27-24. Attacking the basket, MD went up 53-44 on another Padgett basket.

4) At 9-7, Wells came up with a steal. Getting to the rim, Wells tied the game at 15. His FT gave MD the lead. Scoring on a reverse, the Terps went up 18-15. Attacking the rim for 3 straight trip, Wells scored again. Fighting through contact, Wells put MD up 25-22. The 2nd half started with Wells getting a steal, and a dunk in the open court. After being forced to bench with his 3rd foul, Wells came back in after the 15 minute time out, and scored his 2nd (and MD’s) basket of the 2nd half. He then had a nice assist on a basket from Mitchell. High degree of difficult on Wells layup with 8:28 left in the game. He was fouled on his scoop shot, and got the. He got good position on his short layup, putting MD up 55-47. He came right back down the court, and scored again. Wells came up with his own rebound on his missed FT’s in the last minute. Wells finished with 23 points, 5 boards, 2 assists, 2 steals, and a block.

5) Cleare ended a 3 minute+ scoring drought for MD, putting the Terps up 11-10.  Another Cleare basket made tied the game at 41.

6) Howard had a layup, pulling the Terps within a basket at 15-13. A pair of foul shots put MD up 10 at 59-49. Aronhalt did not finish, but Howard gave him a good look with under 3 minutes left. Big layup from Howard with under a minute left. Howard had 8 points, 4  assists, 3 boards, and 2 steals.

7) Nice rebound from Mitchell, at 16-15 MD. Mitchell finished on a nice pass from Wells, giving MD a 36-33 2nd half lead. He made his FT to extend the lead to 4. Mitchell came up with a loose  ball with under 2 minutes left.

8) Aronhalt finally knocked down a 3 for MD, late in the 1st half. That gave the Terps the 23-22 lead. With Padgett getting position inside, the defense collapsed, and Aronhalt was able to bury his 2nd 3. Aronhalt’s 3rd made shot from behind the arc put the Terps up 44-41.

9) A 10-2 run to end the half, had MD go to the half up 6 (30-24).

10) Wake’s offense had their own problems with turnovers in the 1st half, and the Demon Deacons struggled to make shots when they held on to the ball. Still, their shooting % (26.1%) was so poor in the first 20 minutes, that you have to give some credit to Maryland’s defense. For the game, Wake was just 16 of 49 (33%).

11) Maryland did a better job on the boards in the 2nd half, winning 37-29 on the boards overall for the game.

The Bad:

1) Maryland started the game wit a turnover on their first possession. A 2nd turnover in the opening minutes, led to a Wake 3, and a 3-2 Demon Deacons lead.

2) Trying to follow a miss from Len, Padgett had his shot blocked at the rim. Padgett fouled out with about 5 minutes remaining.

3) With MD leading 9-7, Howard turned it over, just falling to the ground. He had fallen a minute earlier on the defensive side of the court. Tied at 9, Howard badly missed an open 3. Faust found Howard for another open 3 with WF leading 22-20, but Howard missed that shot as well.

4) The Terps were down 10-9, when Allen turned it over, attempting to pass into the post. Attempting to do too much, he almost turned it over again a minute later. Down 13-11, Allen forced an early 3, missing for the 2nd time.

5) Per the usual, MD had several prolonged scoring droughts, where any offense was hard to come-up with.

6) Mitchell was charged with an offensive foul, making an unnecessary  move in the post. An illegal pick from Mitchell, wiped out an open look from 3 for Aronhalt. At 59-55, Mitchell had a quality look, and missed from inside. Not a good game for the Freshman.

7) Layman had a good look from the top of the key, and bricked his shot loudly. Early in the 2nd half, Layman missed a layup from point blank range. Layman was a complete non-factor today. He was held scoreless for the game, 0 for 4 from the floor.

8) MD was 2 of 10 from 3 point land in the 1st half, and 3 of 14 for the game.

9) 5 different Terps had at-least 2 fouls at half-time. Wake Forest had 12 foul shots in the 1st half (MD had 3).

10) Wake Forest entered today’s game 249th Nationally in rebounding (MD entered 4th), yet the teams were tied on the boards at the half.

11) After a steal and a dunk to start the 2nd half, Wells picked up his 3rd foul, and found himself on the bench. Seconds later, Len picked up his 3rd foul as well. 2 and 1/2 minutes into the 2nd half, Padgett became the 3rd MD player with 3 fouls. Followed by his 4th seconds later.

12) Cleare was called for an offensive foul, with MD leading 32-29 in the 2nd. That call was ridiculous.

13) Faust had his pocked picked, leading to a CJ Harris dunk, giving WF a 33-32 lead. This culminated a 9-0 Demon Deacons run. At 39-38 Maryland, Faust missed a wide-open lay-up, attempting to be a bit fancier than he needed to be with a reverse.

14) Coming back in after the 15 minute timeout, Len missed an alley-oop. Len was called for a 3 second violation with 9:30 left in the 2nd half. He missed a turn-around jumper from 8 feet a minute later. Len finished with 5 points, 10 boards, and 2 blocks; but was a non-factor for much of the game. Part of that was his foul trouble, the other part was that he was just not overly effective.

15) Aronhalt threw up an air-ball on a forced 3 in the 2nd half. Stepping on the line, Aronhalt turned it over, with MD up 47-42.

16) Horrible decision from Wells at 59-53 MD, and about 4:30 left in the game. Wells attempted to find Len on the lob, but could not complete the pass. WF would get the ball, and score on a short jumper. This pulled the Deacons within 4, finishing a 6-0 WF run.

The Ugly:

1) 10 turnovers for Maryland in the 1st half, with 7 different Terrapins player having at-least 1. This continued in the 2nd half, as MD finished with 19 turnovers.