Alex Len

Scouting Alex Len has become an easy task in recent weeks. Nag the Terrapins men’s basketball center with double-teams and he’ll struggle to contribute.

So Virginia coach Tony Bennett decided to follow a familiar script when his Cavaliers faced the Ukrainian big man Sunday. He threw a litany of double-teams at Len whenever he was on the court, making it difficult for him to nab low-post entry passes. The frustrated sophomore spent most of the afternoon pacing outside the key in the Terps’ 80-69 loss.

Len finished with nine points and seven rebounds, but the solid stat line doesn’t tell the whole story. Four of Len’s points came in the last 1:19 when the game was well out of reach, and coach Mark Turgeon was forced to deviate from his typical inside-out scheme nearly the entire first half.

It was nothing new for Len, who has totaled 15 points and 13 boards over 80 minutes in three career games against Virginia.

“I didn’t think he was very good the first half,” Turgeon said. “The physicality got to him a little bit. … They doubled him, made it tough. I just kept telling him, he has to get to the boards.”

Len will likely need to figure out a way to work through double-teams if the Terps hope to have a chance against Duke this weekend. When the 7-footer struggled with the extra attention at Cameron Indoor Stadium on Jan. 26, the Terps were forced into ill-advised jumpers and ultimately fell, 84-64.

“He has to be a little bit more physical,” Turgeon said Sunday. “It wasn’t his best day.”

HOWARD IMPROVING

Arguably no Terp has disappointed fans more this season than Pe’Shon Howard. After missing 18 games last year with a broken bone in his left foot and a torn ACL, the point guard seemed poised for a breakout junior campaign.

But Howard has endured a frustrating stretch since the start of conference play, coming off the bench in his past eight games after starting 14 of the first 15. He is shooting just 22.2 percent through 10 ACC contests and has struggled with turnovers, even in limited minutes.

Still, Howard has made notable strides over the past two games. He logged a solid 17 minutes against Virginia, hitting his first 3-pointer since mid-January and finishing with five points. Howard also played effective defense on Cavaliers guard Joe Harris, stifling the game’s leading scorer for stretches.

That performance came just three days after Howard seemed to rediscover his confidence in a 60-55 win at Virginia Tech. He drove through the paint for his first points since a Jan. 26 loss at Duke, and dished out two assists with no turnovers in 10 minutes.

“It’s two games in a row that Pe’Shon has really played well,” Turgeon said Sunday. “It’s good to see him back and playing that way. He is going to help us down the stretch.”

EX-COMMIT SHINES

Justin Anderson was supposed to be in College Park right now. The forward verbally committed to the Terps in March 2011, choosing the program that had recruited him since he was the nation’s top-ranked middle schooler half a decade earlier.

But Anderson changed his mind when Gary Williams retired from coaching and landed at his longtime second choice, Virginia. Terps fans reminded Anderson of the spurning throughout the Cavaliers’ win at Comcast Center on Sunday.

The yellow-clad student section booed Anderson whenever he touched the ball, and shouted chants of “Traitor!” and “We don’t need you!” when he stepped to the free-throw line.

The heckling helped trigger the most impressive performance of Anderson’s young career. The Spotsylvania, Va., native netted 14 of his career-high 17 points in the first half and finished with a game-high nine rebounds.

Injuries and illness forced Bennett to start Anderson at power forward, and the 6-foot-6, 226-pound slasher proved too quick for the Terps’ big men. He also had little trouble crashing the glass inside, helping the undersized Cavaliers outrebound the Terps, 34-29 — the first time Turgeon’s squad lost the battle on the boards this season.

“I’ve never seen him make so many shots ever in my life,” guard Nick Faust said. “He played a great game. He was hitting jump shots, attacking very strong.”

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