Wince & repeat: Terps start slow, stay perfect

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — One of these days, Maryland is either going to come out fast from its locker room for the opening tip or lose because of another inexplicably horrible start.

Neither happened Friday for the No. 5 Terps against Harvard in the semifinals of the Orlando Invitational at the HP Field House.

Maryland survived after giving up the game’s first nine points to the Crimson and trailing by as many as 11 points later in the first half, after nearly catching up before falling behind at halftime and finding itself down seven early in the second half. The Terps won an unexpectedly tough battle for the second straight day to beat Harvard, 80-73, and advance to Sunday’s final against the winner of Southern Cal and Marquette.

Coming off scoring a career-high 30 points against Temple in Thursday’s opening round, senior guard Anthony Cowan Jr. overcame his own sluggish start to lead Maryland (7-0) with 20 points, including 17 in the second half. He was one of five Terps to score in double figures. Senior guard Bryce Aiken, a player Mark Turgeon tried to recruit out of high school, led Harvard (5-3) with a career-high 30.

“Whenever a guy goes for that number, you worry about whether you’re going to win the game or not,” the Maryland coach said. “It’s a good win for us. I think we’ve beaten two NCAA-type tournament teams down here so far. I’m disappointed in myself that I can’t get my team to play better at the start. I don’t know what it is. If I knew what it is, I’d have it corrected.”

Sophomore forward Jalen Smith had his fifth double double this season with 15

points and 10 rebounds and his former Mount Saint Joseph high school teammate, junior guard Darryl Morsell, had the first of his career with 13 points and 12 rebounds. Sophomores Aaron Wiggins and Eric Ayala each finished with 13 points for the Terps, who shot poorly from the field (24 of 60) and from the free-throw line (25 of 40).

Turgeon seemed more disappointed in the start than he seemed satisfied in the way the Terps finished. Maryland had a 12-2 run keyed by Cowan that helped give Maryland a lead it wouldn’t lose and a subsequent 10-3 run sparked by Wiggins that put the game away. On their first seven possessions that ran through the first media timeout, the Terps turned the ball over five times and missed two shots, including a quick 3pointer by Smith.

“No one would pass the ball, no one would swing the ball. … We’d have big guys open we wouldn’t pass it,” Turgeon said. “After a heated conversation in a timeout we started to share the ball. We still didn’t make shots in the first half, we were 1 for 10 from 3, but our offense was much better in the second half. We shared the ball. We got to

move the ball better.”

Said Cowan, “We’ve just got to be ready. I don’t think there’s an answer. We’ve just got to come out and play, which we haven’t been these last couple of games. It’s on us. We’ve just got to figure it out.”

Turgeon said that many of his team’s 11 first-half turnovers were the byproduct of being selfish.

“You’re going to turn it over when you’re selfish, and then you just run over people,” said Turgeon, whose team committed 16 turnovers for the game. “Those guys stand there and we just run over them. I think we had five charges in the game. Those are dumb turnovers. You take those five away, it’s at 11. Eric turned it over against a zone, when Darryl is trying to ball screen for him. Those are just dumb turnovers.”

Said Cowan, “I don’t know about selfish, just not taking the best shot for the team, which you can categorize that as selfish. At the end of the day, we’ve just got to get better shots.”

Asked when he knew his team would start as slowly as it did, Turgeon said, “I don’t when I called timeout, was it 7-0 when I called timeout? I thought yesterday we had energy, we were playing a little bit harder. Today we didn’t have anything. We’re a rah-rah team in the lockerroom, we’re rah-rah stretching. I thought we were ready.

I knew early, and I wasn’t sure we were going to change it honestly.”

Maryland seemed to get the momentum late in the first half, erasing the 23-11 deficit to tie the game at 31 on a pair of free throws by Wiggins with 38.3 left in the half. But the Terps immediately gave up a basket and, after Ayala missed the front end of a 1-and-1, little-used sophomore guard Serrel Smith Jr. committed a foul going for the rebound and Harvard went to its locker room up 35-31.

After Maryland took the lead at 39-37 on a 3-point shot by Wiggins, the Crimson scored again quickly and Harvard coach Tommy Amaker quickly called timeout to put his team in a zone. That seemed to confuse the Terps as well, with Ayala committing a turnover on the first possession and Maryland watching its deficit grow twice to seven before the comeback began in earnest.

It took Turgeon putting in walk-on guard Reese Mona for the Terps and their large contingent of fans fired up.

“I love Reese, but you know I’m frustrated when I put Reese in,” Turgeon said. “I believe in Reese. I believe all that Reese wants to do is win.”

Cowan’s 3-pointer — his second in the stretch when he made three shots, including a pair of 3’s, two free throws and fed Smith for a dunk — gave Maryland a 56-54 lead.

After a 3-pointer by Ayala broke a 58-all tie, Wiggins fed Smith in the lane for another dunk, followed in a fastbreak layup miss by Cowan with a tip and then buried another 3-pointer from the corner for a 68-61 lead. Harvard never threatened again. “They’re really talented, very balanced, and incredibly long and athletic on the backboard,” said Amaker, a star at Duke when the Terps were still in the ACC. “I thought that was the biggest key and difference in the game. We knew that coming in. Their ability to play volleyball around the basket and get second shots (15-4 on offensive boards) was too much for us to defend. … I think they have a lot in their favor going forward.”

So does Turgeon, but he knows that as the competition ratchets up starting Sunday, another slow start as the one the Terps had Saturday will likely result in defeats, and perhaps even blowouts.

“When the game was on the line, our halfcourt execution was really good again,” Turgeon said. “I just wished we would do it sooner. There’s a lot ahead of us. Game Sunday, then Notre Dame [Wednesday in Big Ten/ACC Challenge] and league games [against Illinois and Penn State]. We’ve got to get better. I just want our guys to play a little bit more unselfish at the start, and I think we’ll be a better team.”