The Terps came out big last night as they defeated NC State, 74 – 69. Key contributors Eric Hayes, 21 points, and Greivis Vasquez, 17 points and 10 assists, led Maryland in a much needed win in the first round of the ACC tournament. In order for them to make a case for a tournament bid, beating NC State and todays opponent, Wake Forest is a must. Personally, I think they’ll need to get to the championship game, but we’ll see how other teams fare as all the forces need to come together this weekend in favor of Maryland.
Maryland was down by 12 points in the first before they started their surge and ended up tying NC State by halftime. Greivis had an unbelievable game in drawing the attention of the Wolfpack defense by driving the lane and at the right time distributing the ball to his open teammates. The ones benefiting the most seemed to be Hayes and Neal hitting key three pointers to bring the Terps to a tie and eventually pulling ahead in the second half. The Terps played excellent zone defense for what seemed the whole game not allowing the Wolfpack to get inside. NC State did shoot 29 threes, but Maryland did contest those shots and therefore the Wolfpack made only 5 three’s.
Key points of the game. Maryland did attempt 21 free throws making 16 of them. That runs Maryland record to 17 – 2 when they outscore their opponents from the line and this is something they need to keep in mind heading into every game from here out. Another key stat I really haven’t touched on all year is their turnovers or lack there of. The Terps again kept themselves away from double-digit turnovers and in fact had no turnovers at all during the second half. That’s huge in the final minutes of the game and the score is close. Let’s hope they can keep these up heading into the weekend.
Maryland plays Wake today and again they present match-up problems. They have a ton of guys over 6” 8’, but they did play Wake tough last week having the lead only to give it up in the final 5 minutes of the game. Look for the Terps game-plan to be very similar as yesterday and let’s hope they can finish against the Deacs. Go Terps!
