Turtledroppings.com

Maryland continues to impress at home.  They rung up a 92-71 victory over the reeling Tar Heels.  It was a game that looked like Maryland was going to blow it up at the beginning, and Carolina made a game of it, before the Terps put them away late.

The first half was a shooting display that you don’t often see from the Terps.  They hit 9-16 from three and took a 10 point first half lead.  Greivis Vasquez, Eric Hayes and Cliff Tucker were red hot.  Carolina with stood the three point barrage and hung in, but it wasn’t in the cards.

The second half saw the Terps extend the lead quickly before letting it get down to 4.  Then the defense picked it up, and Maryland was scoring the basketball at an alarming rate.  In transition, in the half court, at the line.  Even though they were doing all the scoring, it was really set up by the Maryland defense.  Gary again went with the double team on Deon Thompson, with Vasquez helping, and for the most part it worked perfectly.  They did allow Marcus Ginyard to knock down some open three’s, but the game plan worked well.

Mike Gminksi pointed out a very good stat during the game, that goes to show you how effective Eric Hayes can be when he is knocking down the three’s and getting to the line.  Hey-hey-Hayes (I hope you all saw the Fat Albert sign) had 16 points on only 6 shots, of which he made 5 of them including 4-5 from three.  Much like last seasons late run, Hayes was a key.

We also have to give some mention to Landon Milbourne who scored 15 points and is now a part of the 1000 point club at Maryland.  He used that mid range game very well again this game, and he can make some nice post moves with his speed.  He isn’t the normal power forward, but he gets the ball a little further away from the basket and he can beat his man and use his left to finish.

Jordan Williams continues to impress.  8 points and 6 boards won’t wow you, but he does a lot of things that make me excited about the future with him in the middle.  What really stands out most, is how he runs the floor.  Several times he got out on the break and got easy baskets.  The other thing I like, is he really makes his man work hard to get position down low, and he has the size to force them away from the basket.

Dino Gregory, I have to admit I was down on him a bit, but he had a solid game today.  He hustles down low, and is hitting free throws like no big man I can remember.  He is a solid contributor, and if you don’t expect the world out of him, he can provide solid minutes.  He still seems a little excited when he gets the ball, but he is helping this team win games.

Overall, it was a great performance.  Sure there were some sloppy moments that allowed UNC back into the game, but they really picked up the defense to get things going again.

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 7th, 2010 at 4:44 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.