After a sloppy early start for the Terps, they stuck together and paced Penn State 62-39 at State College in the ACC/Big 10 Challenge. As a whole, the ACC lost the challenge for the second year in a row, 6-5, after winning the previous ten. As for the game, Maryland’s bigger and stronger athletes wore down the Nittany Lions as Penn State typically only play seven players and they had two of their big men in foul trouble.
In the early going, the Terps committed six turnovers in the first four minutes and had one shot in that time period but they only trailed 5-0. However, as the Terps settled in, they pounded the ball into the post to take advantage of their height advantage and to get the Nittany Lions bigs into foul trouble. By the 6:30 mark of the first half, Maryland was up 17-13 and was playing stellar defense as the Nittany Lions were 0-12 from beyond the arc. The only thing that kept Penn State in the game during the first half was their prowess for offensive rebounding. They had 12 offensive rebounds after shooting 9-40 from the field but only trailed 26-20 to Maryland. During the second half, Maryland continued to play stifling defense (21% for the game), forcing turnovers, and broke the game open to 49-30.
Maryland’s bench outscored Penn State 23-3 with key contributions from Terrell Stoglin with 10 points. Other key contributors for the team were Dino Gregory and Sean Mosley who also both scored 10 points and Jordan Williams who had 15 points and 11 boards. As for Penn State, Talor Battle, one of Penn State’s all-time leading scorers, had 21 points but could not get any help from his teammates.
One thing I have begun to notice the past few games is that Stoglin is a ball stopper. What I mean by that is that when he gets the ball, it is not getting passed and he has a tendency to take ill-advised shots after receiving it. I noticed it in the Elon game on Friday night while at College Park. However, it was more pronounced tonight when there were two different times he got the ball and dribbled multiple times and put up two bad shots. This was during the time that Jordan Williams was hot from the field and dominating his man in the low block making it even worse. It is a freshman thing where they feel the need to contribute and be part of the team and I know Gary will work with him on this.
