In a game where neither team did much to win, The Terrapin men’s basketball team’s second half was just enough to avoid a loss against Georgia Tech.
After a bumbling first half replete with turnovers galore and missed shots aplenty, the Terrapins (12-3, 1-0) opened ACC play with a 68-61 victory Saturday over Georgia Tech (9-6, 0-2).
The first 20 minutes were forgettable for both teams. The Yellow Jackets turned the ball over 18 times, while the Terps made just 10 of 40 field goal attempts.
As a result, the Yellow Jackets marched into their locker room nursing a five-point lead, 31-26. The Terps held the lead only once, and they made just a quarter of their 40 shots. The team’s lone made three-pointer came in the half’s last minute after 13 previous attempts had gone awry.
“I was hoping they wouldn’t shoot for a while there,” Terp coach Gary Williams said. “We didn’t make anything.”
Neither team made much ground in the opening stanza of the second half until a Yellow Jacket spurt engineered by forwards Alade Aminu and Gani Lawal pushed their lead to 50-40 with 9:44 to go. Staring down the prospect of an ACC season-opening loss, and unable to rely on the usually strong play of a struggling Greivis Vasquez, the Terps’ young guards stepped in.
Adrian Bowie converted a fast-break layup to end a scoring drought of nearly four minutes, then Sean Mosley hit two free throws to swing the momentum in Maryland’s favor and reenergize a hushed Comcast Center crowd.
Within just over two minutes, the Terps were back on top. After Vasquez found Eric Hayes for 3-pointers in consecutive trips down the court, Maryland took the lead, 53-52, for the first time since the score was 4-3.
“Guys were kind of struggling shooting the ball, myself included,” said Hayes, who redeemed himself with a 5-for-9 second half shooting performance after going just 1-for-7 in the first half. “In the second half, I wanted to come out and be more assertive, looking to drive to the basket and looking for my shot.”
Williams added: “Finding a way to win is the key, and Eric stepped up.”
After a Lawal dunk gave Georgia Tech the lead at 61-59 with 2:14 remaining, the Terps took over as a team, one guard at a time.
After skying above the Yellow Jackets’ giants to snag a defensive rebound, Bowie sprinted down the court for a one-man fast break. Splitting two Yellow Jackets, the 6-foot-3 guard finished strong at the rim to tie the score. Retreating to defense, he quickly swept in to disrupt a perimeter pass and get the ball back once again.
With seconds ticking off the clock, Bowie again made another aggressive drive, drawing contact and heading to the foul line. There, he made two free throws that would prove to be all the Terps needed, regaining the lead, 63-61.
“He’s got the confidence which he didn’t have last year to take the ball to the basket in that situation,” Williams said. “The confidence factor is a big part of a player’s success as he goes through a program.”
Vasquez’s confidence has never been questioned, and it seemed to annoy some Terp fans in the arena. After taking one missed 3-pointer where the guard held his hand in the air with a bent wrist a la Reggie Miller in the 1990s, boos rang through Comcast Center.
Later in the game, after a key made basket, Vasquez, who scored 16 points on 5-of-18 shooting, screamed toward the fans in response. The junior appeared to be feeding off the crowd energy for much of the second half, be it positive or negative.
“This was as angry as he’s been in a while,” senior forward Dave Neal said. “That’s part of his game, that’s what he does. … I think that kind of gives Greivis a little spark.”
The start to Saturday’s game might not have been what Williams desired as the team begins its daunting ACC schedule, but the finish was more than fine.
“To shoot 25 percent and hang in there where you’re close enough to come back in the second half and then go down 10 and still have the toughness to come back is really a good sign for the next 15,” Williams said. “You’ve got to go through a game like that to know you can do it and hopefully we really get a lot out of this game.”
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