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In a theme that is becoming all to familiar, the Terps weren’t able to hold off the Demon Deacons, despite a late lead.  This game was filled with emotion.  It was Dave Neal’s senior night, it was (hopefully) the last game in Comcast this year, and there was A LOT on the line.  Another win against a top 10 team would certainly have looked awfully good on the tournament resume, but it wasn’t meant to be as the more athletic, talented, and deeper team pulled out the victory.

The Terps got off to another hot start thanks to Greivis Vasquez and a stingy defensive effort.  The defense actually picked up with Dave Neal on the Bench and the Terps going a little bigger with Dino Gregory and Braxton Dupree in there.  Maryland was forcing turnovers, 11 in the first half, and was converting on offense.  They did allow Wake to sneak back in, but Dave Neal hit a clutch 3 pointer from the left corner as the half ended.  The place was rocking, and the Terps had a 32-25 lead. 

The second half started rather poorly as Wake went on a run, and a little more than 5 minutes into the half they had not only erased the deficit, but took a 4 point lead.  About midway through the second half, I thought the storybook season was going to cement a trip to the tournament thanks to Senior Dave Neal.  He got hot, hitting 3 three’s a couple minute span.  Comcast was bedlam.  His Dad was going nuts in the stands, Testudo was high fiving Mr. Neal.  After a fastbreak basket by Dino Gregory, the Terps were up 6, and I made the mistake of thinking they had a great shot to win this one. 

The next several minutes Wake took advantage, and were aided by a phantom tripping on against Vasquez, when it appeared Jeff Teague had slipped and turned the ball over.  Instead it was a foul on Vasquez and a two point lead with the ball turned into a one point deficit.  From there Wake never relinquished the lead, and Dave Neal’s senior night will go down as a new career high 19 points, but the sting that they lost a game that could have put them in the tournament will probably be more of his memory.  There is still a chance to get to 8-8 in the conference with a win over UVA over the weekend.  A UVA win, coupled with a win in the ACC tournament will put them clearly on the bubble.  A second ACC win will mean it was against one of the top 4 teams in the conference. 

 Enough of that thought on the future, I still have a few key items from last nights game.  First Eric Hayes missed 3 wide open 3′s that could have given MD a five point lead, taken the lead back and put them up two, and finally tied the game with just under 2 minutes left.  They were all good looks that he absolutely needs to make one of them.  He is the best pure shooter on the team, and didn’t hit them.  That has to be his role for this team. 

Another disaster was the rebounding, or lack there of.  Wake out rebounded the Terps 50-32, but the killer was they had 19 offensive rebounds.  Not many teams will beat a team when they are out rebounded by that margin. 

The final stat that sticks out is Maryland made 100% of their free throws.  That is the good news, the bad news is they only shot TWO!   I honestly don’t think the refs were bad either.  It just shows where this team is lacking.  They don’t have a big man to go to work in the post and draw fouls, and none of the guards have the ability to take their defender to the basket and draw contact. 

If the Terps are going to continue this season into the big dance, they are going to need more than Greivis Vasquez on a consistent basis.  There has to be a second and third go to guy game in and game out.  Last night it was Neal, against UNC it was Hayes and Tucker, and against Duke it was Milbourne.  If you get a couple of makes from Hayes or Milbourne to stop some of the Wake runs, we might be in a different mood today. 

Well as I stated earlier, all is not lost, yet.  There is going to be more opportunities for another marquee win, should they win their first ACC tournament game.   Of course if they don’t go down to Charlotsville and come home with a win, anything short of an ACC Championship may keep them out.  While this season has been far more successful than I ever imagined, you look back at some of the loses, and you see games that they had in their grasp, only to let them slip away late.   Miami, FSU, Duke, Wake, Morgan State.  I am probably missing some others, but you get the idea, this may go down as season where they overachieved, yet still could have finished so much better. 

If I have learned anything to this point in the season, it’s don’t count out Gary Williams and this bunch of guys.  They are leaving everything on the court and if they get a couple more wins, we may still wind up where we want to be.  Go Terps!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 4th, 2009 at 8:40 am 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.