CORAL GABLES, Fla. – In front of a half-empty stadium in a must-win road game, the Terrapin men’s basketball team saved some of its worst for last.
In what might have been their final chance to salvage any hopes of earning an at-large berth to the NCAA Tournament, the Terps flopped, putting together perhaps their least complete effort of the regular season in an 80-66 loss to Miami last night.
Without the energy, shooting touch or defense they needed to keep up with their hosts, the Terps fell in crippling fashion to a co-member of the ACC’s decidedly mediocre middle pack.
In the dying moments of the game, some Terps (18-12, 7-8 ACC) turned to glance at the BankUnited Center scoreboard, watching the time tick away in an ugly loss that had all but robbed the remaining hope from an already grim season.
“There was nothing out there that was a fluke about that game,” coach Gary Williams said. “They played better than we did in every area.”
Nothing seemed to go the Terps’ way from the outset.
In the midst of one of the worst halves his team has played all season, Williams stood glowering on the sidelines just minutes into the game, his eyes staring down Cliff Tucker as the senior walked toward his spot along the painted area.
Tucker had just fouled Miami guard Rion Brown on a successful 3-pointer that Brown quickly added to at the free-throw line. Williams had no words, only a look of disappointment. His Terps hadn’t come to play.
“We can’t really blame it on anything else but ourselves,” guard Terrell Stoglin said. “We have to come out and want the game. If we don’t want the game we’re going to lose.”
The Terps’ hold on the game started to slip away about eight minutes into the first half. Following a 12-0 run, the Hurricanes had a 28-18 lead with 8:28 remaining before intermission.
The Terps looked out of sync offensively, failing to hit shots or find openings in their offense. Miami (18-12, 6-9) so stymied the Terps last night that at points they were forced into desperation heaves near the end of the shot clock. Williams even turned to little-used freshman forward Mychal Parker at one point for a spark of energy.
Brown, meanwhile, continued his unforeseen production off the bench for the Hurricanes. He finished with 19 points on 6-for-7 shooting from behind the arc, seemingly connecting from deep every time the Terps went on a run.
“Sometimes, you don’t know where it’s going to come from. I thought we were ready to play,” Williams said. “We had a good practice, we had a good shootaround, but we didn’t look like we did.”
Forward Jordan Williams, in particular, was lacking. He struggled all night against 300-pound center Reggie Johnson, needing 17 field-goal attempts to finish with 11 points.
“That’s quite a few shots,” Gary Williams said. “You have to put the ball in the basket.”
Stoglin scored 20 points and added five assists, while guard Adrian Bowie added 15 points to help the Terps pull within five after a 17-5 second-half run. But Hurricane guard Malcolm Grant hit a 3-pointer with 11:10 remaining, and the Terps never came closer to regaining the lead.
“We got a little individual out there. We didn’t pass it like we usually do,” said Gary Williams, referencing the team’s 16 assists. “On a good night, you get 20 [assists]. Maybe that explains a lot of things.”
“He’s 100 percent correct,” Stoglin said. “Our teammates, we have to trust each other if we want to win.”
The Terps weren’t much better defensively. Miami’s 80-point night was its first such output against a conference foe this season, and the Hurricanes’ 55 percent shooting more than offset their 17 turnovers.
“No matter what defense we were in, they were making shots and there’s nothing you can do about that,” Bowie said. “We didn’t get the stops.”
The loss paints a bleak picture for the Terps’ postseason dreams heading into their final regular-season game Saturday. Just weeks ago, the team talked of going undefeated in the final eight games of the conference schedule. Now, they’ve burst into March with a loss few expected.
“We needed this win,” said Bowie, whose Terp team could slip all the way to the No. 8 seed in the ACC Tournament with a loss to Virginia this weekend. “They wanted it more and played harder than we did. I have no explanation. We didn’t play Maryland basketball.”
ceckard@umdbk.com
