After losing to Duke earlier in the week, the University of Maryland grabbed their 4th win in 5 Atlantic Coast Conference games with a 91-70 victory over the Wake Forest Demon Deacons.

With the win the Terps move to 15-8 overall, and 5-4 in ACC play.

The Good:

1) Maryland did what you are supposed to do when you are playing an inferior team; take it to them early. The Terps took control of the game from the start with their 14-4 run to open the game.

2) During the first 10 minutes of the game, Howard, Bowie, and Palsson all knocked down 3’s which was good to see. When teams like Wake go to a zone defense against the Terps, Maryland has to hit enough shots from outside to keep those teams honest. The Terps finished the game by hitting eight shots from 3 on their 17 attempts.

3) Mosley had a great hustle save that gave the Terps an extra possession and an additional basket. You can legitimately complain about the lack of offense, but he does every game to help the team win. Today he had 7 points, 4 boards, 4 assists, and 2 steals.

4) Through the first 15 minutes of the game, Maryland had just 2 turnovers. Overall the Terps finished with only 7 turnovers.

5) Howard started over Stoglin, and continued his recent run of improved play. For the game Howard had 9 points (two 3’s), 8 assists, 1 steal, 2 boards and just 1 turnover.

6) Like Howard, Palsson was a Freshman that contributed today. Palsson was 4 of 7 from the field for 9 points, and also played some physical defense on Wake’s McKie.

7) The Terps had 9 steals, and forced 18 Demon Deacons turnovers. Using their defense to create offense allowed MD to go on multiple scoring runs throughout the game.

8) Williams had 27 points, 15 boards, 3 blocks. After hitting 12 of 16 foul-shots against Duke, Williams was 7 of 9 from the line today. He is going to deserve every vote he gets when the All-Conference team is announced.

9) Maryland won on the boards 37-30, and had 27 assists on their 35 made Field Goals.

10) Bowie had 13 points, 6 assists, and 5 boards.

11) 5 assists, vs. 2 turnovers for Stoglin off the bench.

The Bad:

1) With about 6 minutes left in the first-half, the Terps had a 33-19 lead and stole the in-bounds pass. Stoglin was a bit out of control, and picked-up the charge.

2) Maryland got to the foul-line 27 times against Duke, and 32 times against Georgia Tech. Today the Terps would make just 17 trips to the charity stripe. Of course part of that was the amount of zone defense the Terps saw from Wake, and settling for outside shots.

2a) While the Terps hit their share of shots from 3 today, the 17 attempts from 3 point land is more than this team should be taking in any game.

3) Seemed like there was an abundance of missed layups by the Terps today.

4) I think one of the advantages this Maryland team had over most teams is their depth. As the season has progressed, Weijs and Parker have been buried on the bench. I would have liked to have used today, and the following game against Longwood to figure out how to get both back into the rotation.

4a) Even more than Weijs and Parker, I am bothered that Padgett’s playing time is so minimal. 5 minutes against Clemson, 2 minutes vs. UVA, 2 minutes vs. Georgia Tech. Then he was called on for 8 minutes against Duke, and again barely played today. I would imagine Coach Williams is not seeing enough in practice from him to play him more. Still, his play against Duke might have been better if he was playing more regularly. He did make a nice interior pass to Williams in his brief time on the court against Wake.

The Ugly:

None. For the 4th time in 5 games the Terps grabbed an ACC win, and in their last 3 ACC wins Maryland has won each game by double-figures.

Up-Next:

Maryland plays Longwood on Wednesday in a game that figures to be over shortly after tip-off. How the Terps use those 40 minutes to improve as a team is what will be important.

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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