Miami guard Shane Larkin, left, elevates for a jump shot over guard Terrell Stoglin during last night’s Terps loss.
CORAL GABLES, Fla. – Wearied and hunched over, Terrell Stoglin shook his head before trying to somehow explain one of the most emotionally draining games of his career.
He had watched his coach get tossed for back-to-back technical fouls, witnessed his team battle back from a 16-point deficit, seen his own game-tying 3-pointer send the game to overtime.
But for all Stoglin and his young Terrapins men’s basketball team underwent, they also left BankUnited Center last night with a gut-wrenching, 90-86 loss in double overtime. The Hurricanes (13-7, 4-3 ACC) scored the first seven points of the second overtime, and the Terps (13-8, 3-4) didn’t have enough to push it to a third.
“It doesn’t feel good to lose, especially after you work so hard to comeback,” said Stoglin, who scored a career-high 33 points. “Everybody was just playing inspired. We thought it was unfair [coach Mark Turgeon] got [the two technical fouls]. We wanted to go back to the locker room [and] tell him we won the game.”
The madness started soon after guard Nick Faust stole a pass on a full-court press with 7:28 remaining and picked up a subsequent offensive foul. Bewildered, Turgeon jumped out onto the court and made clear his displeasure with the call. Within seconds, he picked up back-to-back technical fouls and an ejection, his first as Terps coach.
The Hurricanes were up 62-46 moments later, all but assured of the game’s outcome. Fueled by their coach’s parting words, though, the Terps used a high-pressure, full-court defense to rip off 11 straight points.
“He really kind of lit the guys up,” said assistant Scott Spinelli, who assumed Turgeon’s position after his ejection. “When he got thrown out, obviously, our team responded quite well. We played with a lot more energy, a lot more focus and a lot more fire.
“I was just the substitute teacher, just trying to follow the lesson plan. The guys wanted to play for our head coach and it shows where our team is headed in the future.”
The Terps scored the last nine points of regulation, none more important than Stoglin’s off-balance 3-pointer at the top of the key that tied the game at 69 with 57.1 seconds left. After Miami missed a potential game winner, Stoglin followed with a miss from deep to push the game into overtime.
In a back-and-forth affair in the first overtime that included a 30-foot 3-pointer by Hurricanes guard Trey McKinney Jones at the shot-clock buzzer, the Terps had to fight back again.
Freshman center Alex Len (11 points), who had already scored two baskets in the five-minute time frame, blocked Miami guard DeQuan Jones’ jumper to force a shot-clock violation with less than a minute left. On the next possession, Terps guard Pe’Shon Howard calmly sunk both his free-throw attempts with 39.1 seconds left to tie the game at 76 and eventually force a second overtime.
That’s when the Terps finally unraveled. A missed 3-pointer by Stoglin, a turnover on a post feed to Len and a missed jumper by guard Sean Mosley led to an 83-76 Miami advantage with just more than two minutes left.
Stoglin sank another 3-pointer with 2:01 left, but a charge call on Mosley on the next fast break ultimately put an end to the Terps’ comeback bid. The Hurricanes hit their final six free throws in the final minute of the game to cap a marathon victory.
“None of us like to lose,” Spinelli said. “But I think this is something to build on at least knowing that the head coach is willing to put himself out there, even get himself thrown out of the game, to get his team fired up.”
Turgeon, who addressed the media after the game in a sweat suit, said he couldn’t watch the game in the locker room but kept up with it on the radio and through text messages from his wife.
“I feel awful for them,” Turgeon said. “It obviously woke our guys up. They played inspired. I’m proud of them. I just wish we got over the hump. It would have been a great win for us.”
Miami finished the first half on a 14-1 run to take a 34-23 lead into the break as the Terps fell apart offensively. In the final four minutes of the half, they missed all six of their shots to go along with a pair of turnovers. The Hurricanes built their advantage and held on despite the absent services of starting forward Kenny Kadji (head injury), who had four double-doubles in the previous nine games.
The loss means the Terps have yet to win on the road this season or at BankUnited Center all time. But no loss will sting more than the one they suffered last night.
“We came up short,” Mosley said. “It just doesn’t feel good to have another loss.”
ceckard@umdbk.com
