Even for one of the youngest teams in the ACC, there’s a point in the season when the experienced virtues of growth, patience, maturity and understanding must surface.
With its early season struggles in the past, the Terrapin men’s basketball team finally seems to be grasping those concepts.
Saturday night, the new-look Terps and their snowballing momentum made N.C. State their latest victim. And from the team’s elder statesman, James Gist, on down to the younger contributors, the Terps pieced together a very encouraging performance.
Of course, any breakdown of the team’s sixth win in seven games has to start with Gist and his career-high 30 points. He almost single-handedly kept his squad close to the Wolfpack in the first half. The Terps never had a lead in the opening 20 minutes and trailed by as many as nine. Without Gist, who finished with 18 of the team’s 31 first-half points, they could have easily fallen apart.
“I was surprised at the end of the game to see he had 30. I really was,” coach Gary Williams said. “That’s to James’ credit that he didn’t go outside what we’re trying to do to get his points. What James has done is get himself into great physical condition. He can run the court with anybody. And if he gets open, we’ll find him when we’re running the offense.”
Though the Terps tried to run the offense in the first half, they weren’t moving the ball effectively, and even open shots weren’t falling. Gist had the hot hand, but the rest of the team shot a dismal 6-for-20 from the floor with only one 3-pointer.
“Being a player, it definitely is tough when you’re running the offense, and you’re getting looks but not making the shots; you kind of want to do it on your own,” Gist said. “But coach Williams stays on us, and one thing I’ve taken from coach Williams over the years is to always trust in the offense. Just because you’re not making shots doesn’t mean you’re not getting good looks. If you keep getting those looks, you’ll eventually start hitting shots, and that’s what happened in the second half.”
That’s an understatement.
The Terps caught fire in the final 20 minutes, shooting 74.1 percent in the second half. They stormed out to a commanding lead by piecing together a 19-5 run out of the locker room, and – in incredible contrast to the first half – every shot was falling.
The ball movement was better, the shot selection was outstanding and, as a result, the Terps tied their season-high mark for points in a half by putting up 53 in the final stanza.
“We’re to the point now where we can settle down and run a good play,” said senior forward Bambale Osby, who added 11 points and eight rebounds in the win. “A couple of games ago we couldn’t do that, and early in the season we definitely couldn’t do that. We’re showing maturity as a team.”
The growth continues to be evident as the team exhibits more patience, better control and an all-around more intelligent game. Saturday’s win was the latest in an upward trend that has the team poised to erase the memory of its difficult early-season woes.
“We’ve worked hard to get better,” Williams said. “That’s been our theme – not to see how many games we can win but to see how good we can get. That’s been our challenge. Memphis has the challenge to try to go undefeated. Our challenge is to try to get better than we were.”
The Terps are well on their way to meeting that goal.
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