Guard Nick Faust dives for a loose ball during the Terps’ 75-63 loss at North Carolina on Feb. 4, 2014.
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — Six of the Terrapins men’s basketball team’s rotational players traveled to the Dean E. Smith Center to play North Carolina last year, and they tilted back their heads to see the bevy of NCAA and ACC Championship banners emblazoned with Carolina blue hanging from the rafters.
So they knew that Tuesday night’s bout at the Tar Heels would provide a significantly stiffer test than Saturday’s road victory at Virginia Tech.
Yet the Terps looked frazzled at times in their final ACC game at North Carolina, got off to a horrid start and fell, 75-63, in an up-tempo bout to squander another opportunity at a much-needed quality win.
Despite some encouraging stretches, the Terps (13-10, 5-5 ACC) could never recover after the Tar Heels (15-7, 5-4) scored the game’s first 11 points and an off-kilter offense was at the root of their problems.
The Terps shot better than 50 percent from the field in each of their previous two games to earn back-to-back wins before traveling to play the Tar Heels. But they often looked disjointed on offense in Chapel Hill. The Terps finished the game shooting 39.3 percent from the field, and they committed 16 turnovers.
The Terps also struggled defending North Carolina guard Marcus Paige down the stretch. The 2012 McDonald’s All-American scored 18 of his 25 points in the second half and outdueled guard Dez Wells, who finished with 18 points on 6-of-12 shooting.
Though Wells and several other Terps had been to the Dean Dome before, the team appeared unprepared for the Tar Heels fast-paced attack to begin the game. North Carolina won the tip and on its first possession forward James Michael McAdoo drained a midrange jumper.
On the Terps’ first possession, guard Jake Layman coughed the ball up leading to a Tar Heels fast break that ended with McAdoo finishing a putback slam.
That burst for North Carolina persisted, and the hosts jumped out to an 11-0 lead just 2:04 into the game.
But after coach Mark Turgeon called a timeout, forward Evan Smotrycz hit a contested 3-pointer from the left corner to put the Terps on the board with 16:44 to play in the first half, and the North Carolina finally slowed down after starting the game 7-of-8 from the field.
On the strength of Charles Mitchell’s eight first-half rebounds and a balanced offense, the Terps trimmed North Carolina’s early lead down to three and trailed 24-21 with eight minutes left in the first half.
The Terps’ erratic offense reappeared late in the period, though, allowing the Tar Heels to regain a 12-point edge at halftime. The Terps shot 28.6 percent from the field in the first half and committed 12 turnovers, which led to 15 North Carolina points.
In the second half, the Terps offense improved as the team turned to Wells more often. Wells had 11 second-half points and helped the Terps’ keep the lead within single digits for much of the second half.
The Terps cut the lead as little as six, but Paige and the Tar Heels seemed to thwart every attempt at a defining run. Paige had a four-point play in the second half, a reverse layup that got the crowd to its feet and calmly sank 9-of-11 free throws on the night.
Paige’s play kept the Terps from ever gaining the lead after a sloppy start, and as the clock wound, North Carolina faithful chanted “ACC.” The Terps left the banner-filled Dean Dome for the last time as a conference opponent with a postseason resume that still lacks a signature victory.
