When the Terrapin men’s basketball players run out of the tunnel and onto the court after halftime, there certainly isn’t the same fanfare as there is before games. Cheerleaders don’t line the path, flags aren’t waving with fans roaring and the lights aren’t going out for an introduction laced with electrifying music and spotlights.

But the Terps don’t seem to mind. Without the pomp, circumstance and excitement of the pre-game, the Terps have played some of their best basketball in the opening minutes of the second half.

“We always discuss at halftime that the first four minutes of the second half is important, to get the run, get the lead and bring the energy,” senior guard Parrish Brown said. “We figure that the first four minutes of the second half is where we win the game or lose the game.”

It is no coincidence the Terps’ final results have largely drawn on their play just out of halftime. When they have come out slow as they did against Virginia, they have fallen short. And given recent results, when the Terps catch fire in that time, it’s over. They showed that Wednesday against Florida State, reeling off a 12-0 run that changed a close game into a comfortable win.

That game was an unbelievable performance out of halftime, far beyond what the Terps have done at any other time this season. Still, there’s every reason to believe they will continue to set the tone out of the half, beginning Sunday against No. 5-ranked North Carolina.

Coach Gary Williams said the difference at the beginning of the second half can be physical and psychological and that the momentum swing can be tremendous. He said it’s more likely to catch a team off guard at that specific time.

“If you’re down 10, if you can cut it to five, then, mentally, you think you really have a good chance to win,” Williams said last week. “You think that the tempo of the game and everything is decided after you play 20 minutes – in other words, how the game is gonna go. But that’s not necessarily true. It can really change during halftime.”

That certainly happened against Florida State. After going more than eight minutes without a point and letting the Seminoles back into the game, the Terps only needed a few seconds to take off out of halftime.

All that was thanks to senior guard D.J. Strawberry, who followed up his zero-point first-half performance with six straight out of the break.

“I was just sitting there frustrated. I wanted to be on the court as much as anybody [in the first half],” Strawberry said. “The second half I just wanted to come out and play my game and play with a lot of energy and just be a leader and lead my team.”

Freshman guard Eric Hayes, who keyed second-half runs at N.C. State and against Florida State, said the rest of the Terps simply followed suit. They extended their lead to 12 on a 12-0 run and crushed Florida State’s chances.

Though Wednesday represented by far the Terps’ strongest rush out of halftime, a season’s worth of experiences has definitely paid off. Williams recalled being on the other side of such a run, when Virginia padded its lead to the point where it was able to hold off the Terps’ comeback.

“We know what we have to do. We know how we play,” Strawberry said. “We know how we play when we’re a good team. We know how we play when we’re a bad team. We’ve been through both stages.”

Lately, though, it’s been a one-way road for the Terps, who have gone on big runs in the second half in each of their four wins in the last couple of weeks. Every time, their run has served as a cushion against cold stints where opponents have surged back. The Terps did not trail during the second half of any of those games.

Recent evidence has proven how good the Terps are out of the break, and players said the time allowed them a return to their style of game. How they’ve done it, though, isn’t an exact science, but junior forward Bambale Osby said it was all about the message in the locker room.

“Coming out of the first half, we’re like, ‘We gotta pick it up. We gotta start playing together. We gotta start going against the gameplan. We gotta play the way we know how to play,'” Osby said. “Everybody says, ‘All right, let’s stop doing it my way. Let’s do it the team’s way.’ And we go out and win.”

Contact reporter Stephen Whyno at whynodbk@gmail.com.