For the third time this season, the University of Maryland dropped a decision to the Duke Blue Devils, this time losing 87-71 in the Quarterfinals of the Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament.

This game was a microcosm of the 2010-11 season, where the Terrapins again showed the ability to play with a quality team, but not able to make the plays necessary to win. Tonight a combination of poor foul-shooting, and decision making did the Terps in.

Down 65-60, Duke lost Nolan Smith to a foot injury. Without the Conference Player of the Year, Duke rallied to pull away – while Maryland completely wilted down the stretch.

The Good:

1) Jordan Williams did an excellent job of not settling for a jump shot, and backing down one of the Plumlee brothers for an early score. He is going to get rightfully killed for his poor night at the line, but he did have 16 points and 16 boards. When MD was able to get him the ball in the post, Williams converted.

2) Maryland started off strong offensively, hitting 8 of their first 12 shots. Overall they shot well from the floor, finishing the game having made 26 of their 58 attempts (45%).

3) Tucker stepped-up tonight on both ends of the floor. He was playing defense with purpose and contributed offensively with 12 points, 5 boards, and 3 assists.

4) Howard had a solid game, and was doing a good job of taking what the Duke defense gave him. He finished with 10 points (3 of 3 from the floor), and also made 3 of his 4 attempts at the line.

5) Mosley got into foul-trouble fairly early, but while on the floor the defensive effort was apparent.

6) The Terps were able to limit the damage from Smith and Curry, playing good perimeter defense.

The Bad:

1) While the Terps started out hot offensively, their defense was not getting any early stops of their own as Duke hit 7 of their first 14 shots. This continued throughout as Duke finished the game having hit 49% of their attempts.

2) Singler is a difficult match-up for anyone on the college-level, but Palsson was having a lot of problems dealing with the size.

3) Down 29-24, Maryland tried to force an alley-oop. When you are trying to upset teams, I think you have to especially lock in and not give away possessions when you are down more than one basket.

4) Stoglin blew a couple of fast-breaks in the first-half continuing the poor decision making he showed last night against NCST. It was a horrible two games in the ACC Tournament for the Freshman, as he had 5 turnovers for the second night in a row. For MD to win tonight, I thought Stoglin was going to need to score. His 2 of 10 performance included a lot of forced shots.

5) A Tucker jumper tied the game at 31 with 4:25 left in the first 20 minutes. Duke went on a 11-2 run to close the half.

6) Gregory made a layup to pull Maryland within 3 (63-60) at the 10:14 mark of the 2nd half. Maryland proceeded to miss 8 consecutive field goal attempts, and be held scoreless for nearly 6 minutes.

The Ugly:

1) Williams’ FT shooting improved during the year, but he missed his first 6 attempts tonight, and finished just 2 for 10. Not only did he leave points at the line, the misses meant that Maryland could not set-up their defense.

1a) You can not go 15 of 28 from the line as a team, and hope to upset a quality team.

Up-Next:

Maryland will not hear their name called for the NCAA Tournament Sunday night, but should receive a bid to the National Invitation Tournament (NIT). While no team dreams of a bid to the NIT, you might as well make the most of it once you are there. The Terps would do well to follow the example set by their fellow ACC team North Carolina, who reached the NIT final last-year.

Chris Stoner
Chris Stoner

Owner

Chris Stoner founded Baltimore Sports and Life in 2009. He has appeared as a radio guest with 1090 WBAL, 105.7 The Fan, CBS 1300, Q1370, WOYK 1350, WKAV 1400, and WNST 1570. He has also been interviewed by The Baltimore Sun, Baltimore Business Journal, and PressBox (TV). As Owner, his responsibilities include serving as the Managing Editor, Publicist, & Sales Director.

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