Image Credit: The Diamondback
In their final regular season meeting in the ACC, the Maryland Terrapins (13-10, 5-5 ACC) fell to the North Carolina Tar Heels (15-7, 5-4 ACC) by a score of 75-63. It was a rough game for the Terps, who fell behind early and weren’t able to do enough to get back into the game. They never held a lead in the game, and were on pace for 24 turnovers by halftime. Both teams played sloppy basketball, but in the end the Tar Heels were able to pull away for their 4th straight victory. Let’s take a closer look at some of the things we saw in this loss for the Terps.
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- The Tar Heels stormed out of the gates early and grabbed a big lead before the Terps knew what hit them. By the 15:00 mark, they were already down by 16 points. Maryland had done well starting games off strong over the past week or two, but went back to their old ways early in this one.
- After North Carolina’s big run, Maryland went on a run of their own. They were able to pull within 3 points with just under 7 minutes to go in the first half, but ended up down by 12 by halftime.
- The second half didn’t go Maryland’s way either, as they hovered around a 10-point deficit for most of the rest of the game. Fouls were plentiful in this one, which can normally be expected when Karl Hess’ crew is doing the officiating.
- The Terps shot 39.3% from the field in this game, but ended the first half shooting just 28.6%. Poor shot selection was rampant, as multiple possessions saw bad shots being taken much to early in the shot clock.
- Maryland was also 6-23 (26.1%) from the 3-point line. A lot of those bad shots taken early in the shot clock were 3-pointers. The Terps could have been much more efficient from beyond the arc than they were.
- 12 turnovers were committed by the Terps in the first half, and they finished the game with a whopping 16. This is especially concerning considering that the team finished with just 11 assists. Assist-to-turnover ratio has never been a strength of this team, and they showed it tonight.
- North Carolina is the worst free throw shooting team in the ACC, and they showed it tonight. They only shot 51.4% from the charity stripe, while the Terps shot 65.0%, which is approximately their season average. But the Tar Heels still ended up making more free throws than Maryland due to the 29 fouls committed by the Terps compared to North Carolina’s 18.
- Going back to assist-to-turnover ratio, North Carolina committed 14 turnovers, but finished with 17 assists.
- Charles Mitchell was one of the few positives for Maryland in this game. He finished with a massive 13 rebounds, while adding 5 points and 3 blocks. 5 of his rebounds were offensive, and 8 were defensive. He also made his only free throw attempt. He was playing with a ton of energy and enthusiasm on the court tonight, and was impressive to watch.
- Dez Wells also had a good game for the Terps, continuing his string of quality performances. He finished the game with 18 points and 4 rebounds. However, he missed some key free throws throughout the game, and turned the ball over 7 times.
- Shaquille Cleare was on the court for 15 minutes, and did virtually nothing. He scored no points, recorded 1 rebound, and was called for 2 fouls. I’m still not sure why he’s getting more minutes than Jonathan Graham or Damonte Dodd, who didn’t see any of the court tonight.
- Roddy Peters really struggled tonight in his 6 minutes of play, scoring no points and turning the ball over 3 times. He’s really struggled ever since Seth Allen reclaimed his role as the starting point guard, relegating Peters back to the bench.
- Execution off of set plays was a big issue for the Terps tonight. I counted three set plays off of timeouts that ended in turnovers.
Terps Analyst
Zack is a financial analyst for a defense contractor in Washington, DC. The Owings Mills native focuses most of his efforts on Maryland Football recruiting and individual coach and player pieces; but also covers Terps Basketball. He has established relationships with Big Ten beat reporters across the conference, which he utilizes in his game previews. Now a Sr. Terps Analyst for BSL, Zack can be reached at: zack.kiesel@baltimoresportsandlife.com.