Maryland played their second game of the Maui Invitational and it wasn’t as pretty as the first. The Terps took on Cincy last night and the results weren’t that good. Maryland lost this one by the score of 69 – 57 and the game wasn’t even that close.
The Terps were taken by storm in this game. They were never in sync and rushed shots like they playing their first game of the season. They didn’t seem to share the ball as they did in their previous four games The Terps rarely turned the ball over, but they were out muscled by the Bearcats who ran the floor better than the Terps . The Bearcats collapsed in the lane defensively, they created turnovers and outran the Terps to the other end for easy buckets.
Overall, there final stats don’t look that bad, but there was something about this game that we’ve seen before. This game was a little reminiscent of last year’s loss to Memphis where the Terps were manhandled by a larger Tiger team. They looked shy and unconfident with running their plays. Greivis did attempt to take over in the second half, but ended his night on 5 – 17 shooting or a dismal 29%. That’s not the way the Terps want to play this year out. Sharing the ball works better for this team as we’ve seen in their previous four games. Having Greivis is an advantage for the Terps because he can score, but he needs to get others involved.
Defensively, the Terps didn’t look that bad. Williams and Padgett again had good nights under the basket with 10 and 5 boards respectively. They didn’t get any help from anyone else though as the Terps were out rebounded 45 – 31. The Terps were also horrid from the foul line shooting 17 – 31, a horrendous 54%. Those are free points and the Terps need to take advantage of that especially in the close games they’ll play in this year.
The Terps play for third place today against a Wisconsin team that is always good defensively. Lets hope the Terps can bounce back and gain good experience from this week.
