ATLANTA – Even before Maryland came to the ACC Tournament and pulled off two wins, this wasn’t a bad team. It was a dangerous team, to be sure, a team that had knocked off Michigan State, Michigan and North Carolina. But the Terrapins had their share of uneven play during the season, especially in ACC play, and that’s where this team became an unknown.
After opening conference play with a win over Georgia Tech, the Terrapins lost four of five. They finished the regular season losing three of four. Along the way, they did not win consecutive games in ACC play, although they had a seven-game winning streak right before losing to Morgan State in their final non-conference game.
It’s not clear if they have found their stride at the right time or not, but after Friday’s 75-64 win over Wake Forest, the Terrapins are in the ACC semifinals. It’s the first time all year they have won consecutive ACC games – certainly not a bad time for that – and with this, they might also be on their way to an NCAA Tournament bid.
“We have some good wins before today,” said head coach Gary Williams. “Hopefully that will really help us.”
Maryland turned up the defense in Friday night’s win over Wake Forest, another quality win for them. They held Wake Forest below 30 percent shooting for the game, and their defense helped them start both halves strong. They scored 14 of the game’s first 19 points, then opened the second half with a 14-2 run to take their largest lead of the game at 17. That was in stark contrast to the night before, when they fell behind 21-8 to NC State before coming to life.
As important as starting the game fast was, breaking it open in the second half was bigger, especially since in their home loss to Wake Forest a week and a half earlier, they led at the half only to see the Demon Deacons take the lead early after intermission.
“We came in at halftime and said ‘it’s not over, we’ve got 20 more minutes and the first five minutes are going to be key for us’,” said senior Dave Neal. “I think the way that we came out there in the second half, we made a statement that we’re not going to quit.”
“It was really important for us because every time we lose a game, we lose it in the second half,” said Greivis Vasquez, who again shined with 22 points, eight rebounds and nine assists. “Our second half today was really tough.”
The Terrapins’ defensive efforts frustrated the Demon Deacons’ best players. Jeff Teague didn’t score in the first half in going 0-6 from the field, and finished with 11 points on 3-13 shooting. Al-Farouq Aminu had just eight points on 2-12 shooting in his first ACC Tournament game.
An even better place to look is inside. While the Demon Deacons looked to have a good size advantage inside – the Terrapins’ tallest starter is 6’7″ Landon Milbourne – they were out-rebounded 44-40 by the smaller Terps and got almost nothing from seven-footer Chas McFarland (four points and four rebounds in 18 minutes, missing all four field goal attempts).
“I think that everyone just bought into the fact of how hard we had to go to be able to rebound with a team like Wake,” said Williams.
Williams talked about how hard this team has worked, especially in their practices. He’s seen a consistency with this team that gives him reason to be positive, noting that they have practiced well after a big win and after a loss. The payoff has been what he feels is a gradual improvement they have had over the course of the season, including dealing with some tough losses.
“They could have quit a couple of times during the season, there were some things that we had to go through that were a little different this year,” said Williams. “They’ve been able to come in and handle things.”
Thus far, they have handled two games in the ACC Tournament. They have also shown that they might be more of a known quantity than they were before, and one that tends to the good side of things.
