Greivis Vasquez knows his time as a Terrapin is dwindling.
And to the senior guard, that’s what made his unstoppable first-half performance at Comcast Center last night even more fun.
Vasquez scorched Virginia for 25 points in the first half as the Terps steamrolled Virginia 85-66.
The fiery Venezuelan shimmied, scored at will and even high-fived former Terp All-American Steve Francis following a second-half 3-pointer in leading his team to its fifth straight home win to start the ACC season.
Vasquez finished the game with 30 points, eight rebounds, five assists and no turnovers before leaving to a standing ovation with 4:54 remaining and his team up by 27 points.
“I don’t want to waste any time, any second,” Vasquez said. “I want to enjoy my last couple games at Comcast. I want to show the crowd some love, and I want to win games.”
Bouncing back from a 21-point loss at Duke on Saturday, Vasquez accomplished each of those goals, including the dominating win that kept the Terps (17-7, 7-3 ACC) tied for second in the ACC in the loss column.
The Terps never trailed against the Cavaliers (14-9, 5-5) in a game that was wiped out by snow Wednesday, instead serving as the middle leg of a stretch that includes three games in five days.
Forward Landon Milbourne (14 points), forward Jordan Williams (11 points) and guard Eric Hayes (10 points) also cracked double figures to help the Terps shoot 56 percent as a team.
In handling Virginia, which has now lost five of seven ACC games after a 3-0 start to conference play, the Terps have now won their five ACC home games by an average of 19 points per game.
“Just playing in the atmosphere is fun — to see Steve Francis on the sideline, [former Terp football player] Vernon Davis, [rapper] Wale,” said forward Dino Gregory, recounting some of the stars that joined the Terp faithful at Comcast. “It was fun. We all had a good time.”
If there were doubts about how the team would bounce back after its worst loss of the season, Milbourne gave an early indication, swishing a mid-range jumper 19 seconds in. The Terps scored the first six points and knocked in their first four field goal attempts to build a quick lead.
“You really don’t have a chance to practice much,” coach Gary Williams said of his team’s much more lively start yesterday than Saturday at Cameron Indoor Stadium. “That’s just the players really understanding things mentally, and I think they were focused to do that.”
Virginia got as close as 24-21 on Jeff Jones’ three-point play with 9:04 left in the first half, but the Terps responded with an 11-0 run and the lead never dropped below 12 points again.
Vasquez, who is just 31 points from reaching the 2,000 career point mark, did much of his damage during those opening minutes.
He accounted for 12 of the Terps’ first 20 points, scoring in a variety of ways. The 6-foot-6 guard dispatched a revolving door of Cavalier defenders as part of a shockingly easy performance Gary Williams called “as good a half as I’ve seen from him against a quality opponent.”
The result was an 18-point halftime lead for the Terps, who recorded assists on 22 of their 36 baskets.
“I thought he got most of his shots in really good rhythm tonight — part of the offense,” Gary Williams said. “And when he does that, he’s really effective.”
After halftime, Vasquez attempted just six shots and scored just five points, mostly deferring to teammates. The exception was a quick five-point burst that he closed by high-fiving Francis, who was seated courtside, on his way back up the court.
The senior, sporting a gelled faux-hawk hairstyle, had plenty of reason to celebrate.
The Terps, who will complete their tough stretch tomorrow at N.C. State, built much-needed momentum after a deflating road loss.
And in the fourth to last home game of his decorated career, Vasquez was having fun doing what he does best.
“He came out there pretty focused and he felt like every shot he took he could make and he pretty much did,” Milbourne said. “That’s what scorers do. … He just felt like it was just a big, wide rim today and everything he put up there just went in.”
edetweiler@umdbk.com
