Porous first-half offense dooms Maryland men’s basketball in its first loss of the season at Clemson
(Photograph Courtesy of Maryland Athletics.)
Sophomore Hakim Hart looked to feed sophomore Chol Marial within for an easy finish. Instead, Marial was smothered by three Clemson defenders and was stripped, one of Maryland's 14 total turnovers and 10 committed in the first half. Off of the turnover, guard Alex Hemenway knocked down a three to extend Clemson's lead to 13-4.
That sequence encapsulated Maryland'southward (4-i) offensive woes and Clemson'south (4-0) timely perimeter shooting as the Tigers used a ascendant showtime-one-half functioning en road to a 67-51 victory. Maryland'south woes offensively in the first-half doomed its hopes of a comeback, every bit the Terps had ten turnovers and just six made field goals at the break.
"Nosotros missed layups early on, we missed gratuitous throws early and turned the ball over," caput bus Mark Turgeon said. "Nosotros were almost merely equally selfish as any of my teams have ever played."
Final season, Maryland became all too familiar with boring starts, as it notoriously struggled shooting the ball in the opening five minutes. Even so, struggles shooting in the early on stages of games represented uncharted territory for this year'due south Maryland team, as the Terps entered Wed's contest as one of the best shooting teams in the country.
In the opening 4 minutes, the Terps shot 1-6 from the field equally they struggled with Clemson's length on the perimeter and stout defense. Those shooting struggles continued as the first half progressed, and the Tigers continued to build on their lead.
"[Clemson] denied passing lanes and it made it really tough to score," senior Darryl Morsell said. "This was the first team we played this year that denied all of the passes, I remember that contributed to us not getting off to a slap-up start."
While Maryland struggled to score early, Clemson knocked down a trio of threes en route to a xiii-4 pb at the u-12 media timeout. The ensuing possession, Jairus Hamilton finished a tough layup inside, which cut Maryland'southward arrears to 13-6 at the 11:48 mark of the offset half.
Yet, the Tigers responded with a 12-ane run over the next 3:29 keyed by the trio of Aamir Simms, Nick Honor and Hemenway. Each of them buried their second threes of the dark, making Maryland pay for not rotating fast enough defensively. 18 of Clemson'due south 38 first-half points came from behind the arc, as the Tigers establish success on the perimeter.
"We couldn't get our shot going in the outset half, the ball simply wasn't billowy our way," baby-sit Eric Ayala said. "It afflicted us on the defensive end, just non having the free energy both [on offense and defense]"
Leading 25-7 with 8:17 remaining in the first half, Clemson's defensive intensity maintained and the Tigers extended their atomic number 82 downward the stretch. Guard John Newman III and Simms connected to key the Tigers offense finding success both attacking the paint and on the perimeter.
Every bit Simms knocked downward his terminal basket of the showtime half with 1:12 remaining, Maryland entered the half trailing 38-15, their worst offensive half of the twelvemonth by a substantial margin. Those struggles tin can be attributed both to Clemson's defense, but besides the Terps inability to protect and share the brawl.
"Nosotros weren't moving the ball, we weren't moving our bodies," Turgeon said. "We were simply standing and watching the guy dribble. It'south not a difficult game, you've got to change sides with [the ball and nosotros didn't."
The opening v minutes of the 2nd half was a dorsum-and-forth thing, as the Terps slowly attempted to cutting into the large arrears. In the second half, Donta Scott was the catalyst for Maryland's offensive resurgence as he knocked downwardly a pair of threes, which cutting Clemson'south atomic number 82 to 46-29 with 12:46 remaining.
Maryland slowly connected to trim the lead due to the success of their press disrupting Clemson's offense. Guard Reese Mona came off the bench and provided great on-brawl pressure, which made it difficult for the Tigers to navigate the press and forced them to settle for shots later in the shot clock.
Building on the success of the defence, with viii:thirteen remaining Galin Smith executed a tough layup inside, which cut the arrears to 12. However, less than a minute later, Aaron Wiggins looked for Smith inside and the laissez passer went just past his outstretched arms.
Guard Al-Amir Dawes picked upwardly the loose brawl and buried a transition three, which he followed up with some other transition layup soon after. Those two shots extended Clemson's lead to 17 and seemingly took away Maryland's surging momentum.
Shortly subsequently, Wiggins made his first iii of the night to cut the deficit to 14. However, one time again Dawes and Accolade bounced dorsum with consecutive threes pushing the lead to 20 with 4:17 remaining– sinking the Terps' hopes of a second-one-half improvement.
Maryland will at present await to put Midweek'due south loss in the past every bit information technology transitions to conference play hosting No. 21 Rutgers on Dec. xiv.
"Nosotros play Rutgers next, we've got to respond," Morsell said. "We'll go dorsum, expect at the film, see what nosotros tin can improve on. Large X play coming upward we've definitely got to become ready for that and I recall this game opened our eyes to it."
Source: http://wmucsports.net/porous-first-half-offense-dooms-maryland-mens-basketball-in-its-first-loss-of-the-season-at-clemson/
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