John Gilchrist provided the Terrapin men’s basketball team with 16 points during the final seven and a half minutes yesterday – not that the squad needed a late offensive boost.
The lead never sagged below 11 points in the second half as the No. 23-ranked Terps rolled to a 96-72 win over North Carolina-Asheville yesterday afternoon at Comcast Center.
The 96 points marked a season high, but offense wasn’t the Terps’ (5-2) concern entering their final tune-up before an early ACC test next weekend.
“It’s already established that we can score as a team,” Gilchrist said. “It’s our defensive effort that we always have something to work on. We shouldn’t have let this team score 70-some points. We have to get over letting teams back in the game. From now on, with ACC season starting, once you get a lead on a team, you have to put them away.”
After scoring the game’s first 12 points, the Terps allowed the Bulldogs (1-5) to close the gap to 26-21 late in the first half.
Another 12-0 run by the Terps pushed the margin out of reach for good.
“They came to play.” Terp coach Gary Williams said. “They weren’t intimidated, and they made a nice run on us there in the first half.”
Five Terps scored in double figures led by Gilchrist, who scored 20 of his game-high 22 points in the second half. The junior point guard, sporting a freshly-shaven head, connected on 8 of 9 attempts.
Junior forward Travis Garrison and junior guard Chris McCray each scored 15, and sophomore guard D.J. Strawberry added 13 off the bench. McCray, playing more aggressively on the offensive end, led the team with 11 first-half points.
“I still wanted to play within myself, but I wanted to go out there and be more aggressive. [Coach] always tells
me when I don’t take that shot, I’m hurting the team,” McCray said of making use of his open looks.
Altogether, the Terps shot 55.1 percent from the field. Sophomore guard Mike Jones, who made one of his season-high nine attempts, was the exception to the strong shooting performance.
“I want him to take those shots,” Williams said. “Like all shooters, he’s a streak shooter. He made the first one, but after that he had a tough time putting it down. I want him to shoot in that situation. He’s got to take those shots so he gets used to it.”
The Terps were perfect on 13 attempts from the free-throw line – the second flawless foul-shooting effort in program history.
“I think we should be a good free-throw shooting team this year. We’ve had some guys miss some, so hopefully that’s behind us,” Williams said. “That’s the way you look at free throw shooting, because you can get on a roll either way. It certainly hurt us the last couple games. Hopefully, today’s really a good sign for the rest of the way.”
Florida State will visit Comcast Sunday for the Terps’ untimely ACC opener, which falls at the end of exam week.
“It’s a tough situation for us because of exams. I’ve never coached an ACC game coming out of exams before, so hopefully we’ll be able to handle this situation,” Williams said. “We will be ready to play. That’s what counts.