Turtledroppings.com – Maryland Football And Basketball Blog

I don’t know where to start.  I really thought this was a game Mar, yland would win.  At the same time, Cal is/was this lights out three point shooting team, and that has been a problem for the Terps.   It didn’t seem to matter.  The Terps started out hot, and you at least knew they were there to play.  The Maryland pressure defense was impressive in the early part of the game, but the Terps were unable to really take advantage of the turnovers.  It was one of those games where I felt like they should have been up by a lot more than they were, but yet they were only up 3. 

The game really became a bit of sleeper though.  I would never have expected it, but by midway through the second half the game was tied at 51-51, and the way things were going, it was going to be stressful game.  However, a Terps team showed up that we hadn’t seen in a while.  They were able to put up 50 points in the second half.  The lead really came from a 9-0 run that included three pointers from Eric Hayes and Landon Milbourne.  It really made up for that typical Maryland stretch where they go five or more minutes without scoring.  From that point on, Cal never really threatened.  As a Maryland fan, I never really thought it was over (see Duke at Maryland 2001), but Cal wasn’t making those three pointers that we all pointed to prior to this game. 

Cal actually was doing a good job getting inside, and the Terps switched to a zone.  That really seemed to be the deciding factor.  Cal came into the game shooting 43% from three point range, but the Terps were able to hold them to 7-24 shooting (29%).  It was everything you could wish for as a Terps fan.  Cal struggled from 3, Vasquez made just under 50% of his shots while scoring 27 points, and Eric Hayes made some open looks.  Throw in the fact that Dave Neal had a great shooting day and chipped in 15 points, and it was a recipe for a win for the Terps. 

This game was really a team effort.  Sure Greivis Vasquez scored 27 and Dave Neal scored 15.  Does that really stand out to you?   Dino Gregory drew some charges, had a couple of hustle plays and had a huge follow up dunk.  Eric Hayes finished with 14 points and 4 assists.  A couple of the shots he made were huge.  What about Adrian Bowie?  He made some huge moves down the lane and added 12 points.  It was one of those games where it took a total team effort.  It is a game I won’t soon forget.  The best part of the win is I get a chance to watch the game with about 12 of my friends from Maryland as we are playing golf and having our fantasy baseball draft Saturday.  As I make the flight from Boston, it will be nothing but smiles, and I will be rocking red form head to toe!  Go Terps!

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 19th, 2009 at 5:55 pm and is filed under Maryland Terps Basketball. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.