Terps fall behind, fall short in ACC-Big Ten clash
COLLEGE PARK – The inexperience and potential of the No. 24 Maryland men’s basketball team was on full display Wednesday night against No. 4 Virginia in the ACC-Big Ten Challenge. So was the experience and toughness of the Cavaliers.
Playing before the season’s first announced sellout crowd at Xfinity Center, the young Terps fell behind by nine points at halftime and by 17 in the second half. They seemed impatient and a bit overmatched in the big-game setting against a highly ranked opponent.
Making a spirited comeback — helped by some foul trouble for Virginia — No. 24 Maryland cut its deficit to four before losing, 76-71. The difference in the game proved to be turnovers: 14 by the Terps to only two by the Cavaliers, with both coming on offensive fouls.
“We lost to a great team tonight that played at a high level,” Maryland coach Mark Turgeon said. “Only two turnovers against us in this building. “They shot a great percentage from 3 [45.5 percent on10 of 22]. They made a lot of tough shots.
“We’ll learn from this. We know we missed some timely boxouts in the second half. But we never quit, and that’s a good sign for us moving forward. We shot 54 percent against a Virginia team that can flat out guard you. We outrebounded them [35-23]. Just comes down to turnovers, really and 50-50 balls in the first half.”
Junior guard Kyle Guy led Virginia (7-0) with 18 points, including 15 in the first half, while shooting 5-for-9 on 3-pointers (4-
for-7 in the first half ). Junior guard Ty Jerome finished with 17 points and redshirt freshman forward De’Andre Hunter scored 15.
“[Guy] and Jerome, they’re some confident guys,” freshman guard Eric Ayala said. “It’s not really a shot they they don’t like and their coach [Tony Bennett] trusts them to make plays. A lot of respect to those guys and the work they put in. They a No. 4 team in the country for a reason.”
After a slow start, junior guard Anthony Cowan Jr. led Maryland (6-1) with 15 points. Sophomore center Bruno Fernando finished with 14 points and 11 rebounds. Freshmen Aaron Wiggins and Ayala each scored 13.
The loss was Maryland’s first of the season and fifth straight in the ACC-Big Challenge.
Still, Turgeon can take some positives out of it going into Saturday’s Big Ten opener at home against Penn State. Going small: After falling behind by17 early in the second half, Turgeon called timeout. He went to a smaller lineup, alternating between Fernando and freshman forward Jalen Smith (Mount Saint Joseph) with four perimeter players.
Immediately out of the timeout, Wiggins and Ayala hit back-to-back 3-pointers and Smith, subbing for Fernando, was able to score inside.
Eventually, it was Fernando who got most of the time being bigger, stronger and better passing out of double teams than Smith.
It also helped defensively, allowing the Terps to close out on Virginia’s shooters and get around ball screens better, as the Cavaliers cooled off as the Terps cut their deficit to single digits.
“We started switching the down screen and we double the post if we had a mismatch,” Turgeon said. “I thought it helped us a lot. We still didn’t guard great. We didn’t rebound as well in the small lineup. I think it gave us some confidence.”
The Terps were also able to get the Cavaliers, among the nation’s leaders perennially in not committing fouls, to the 10 fouls with a little over 10 minutes left. Though Maryland missed some free throws - finishing 10 of 16, as did Virginia – it helped in the comeback.
“That’s a really good sign for us, if we can draw fouls against a team that’s No. 1 in the country in fouls,” Turgeon said. “There’s a lot of positives, but we’ve just got to make a few more free throws.”
Freshmen step up: Similar to its last game against Virginia four years ago in the ACC-Big Ten Challenge, Maryland’s five freshmen played well.
Ayala continued his hot 3-point shooting by hitting 3 of 4 and Wiggins, after another slow start, wound up shooting 3 of 5 from 3.
“Eric’s a winner,” Turgeon said,. “The kid [Kihei Clark] guarding him was terrific. He was giving Eric fits out there. … But Eric made some big shots for us.“I was happy to see Aaron [hit some shots]. Aaron was really nervous in the first half and he’ll probably admit to that, but I thought the second half he played with much more poise and made some shots.”
Said Ayala: “I think a lot of the freshmen tonight on our team grew up. It was definitely am experience for us and we’re going to learn from it for sure.”
Jalen Smith struggled a bit, trying to figure out his role in the offense. Early on, he missed a couple of open 3-pointers. While he was able to get into a flow in the first half, he wound up with just six points and five rebounds in a little over 26 minutes. He was also on the floor during some of Virginia’s runs.
“It’s tough,” Turgeon said of using just one big man for most of the second half. “They’re so hard…the double in the post and all that stuff. I just felt that defensively our big lineup wasn’t good enough tonight so we went small, but I’ve got to share time at [center] with Bruno and Stix [Smith].