If you just checked the final score of the Terp men’s basketball team’s 98-55 win Tuesday against a clearly overmatched Winston-Salem State squad, you probably didn’t get the whole picture of the game.

The final numbers are impressive. The Terps hit a season-high 12 three-pointers, forced 19 turnovers and shot nearly 57 percent overall.

But afterwards, coach Gary Williams was clearly less than happy with the team’s first half effort.

Maybe it was because after focusing on defense during their 10-day break for final exams, the Terps allowed the Rams to shoot 47 percent in the first half.

Or maybe it had to do with his team finishing the first 20 minutes with just eight points in the paint and instead relying heavily on their impressive outside shooting.

Those are probably better guesses even then the fact that his squad needed a late 8-0 run to take a 12-point lead into the intermission.

“They were with us for a little while, so we can’t let that happen any more,” forward Jordan Williams said, noting the team’s penchant for getting off to slow starts so far this season.

Apparently, Williams was not impressed with the team’s nine first half three-pointers. (He criticized his offense for settling for quick shots.) And he talked about specifically telling his players that they had to look inside more in the second half.

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When Greivis Vasquez exited the Comcast Center floor with 5:00 remaining  in Tuesday night’s win against Winston-Salem State, his team led by 39 points and he was just two rebounds shy of his second career triple double.

Vasquez, who left the game for the final time with fellow senior Eric Hayes, didn’t take a seat right away. Instead, he walked down the bench and high-fived each person all the way to the end- including managers.

Vasquez had just completed his best game of a so-far inconsistent season. His 27 points were the most for a Terp this season. He also finished with 11 assists, eight rebounds and three steals, while hitting all four of his three-point attempts.

Still, on this night, the major story was probably the hot-shooting of Cliff Tucker and Adrian Bowie and the needed confidence boost for the reserves en route to 41 total bench points.

This display was just another way for the passionate Venezuelan to show that was just fine with him.

Even though he’s struggled to find his shot for most of this season, almost everyone around the team has continued to point to his improved leadership.

Tuesday’s performance was just another embodiment of that.

“I think you could see tonight what he’s capable of,” coach Gary Williams said. “It’s there. It’ll happen. Hopefully, he’s on his way.”

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Winston-Salem State has not looked quite like a team that lost to Charlotte 94-52 in its last time out.

The Rams were right there challenging the Terps for most of the half, but the home team started to create some distance toward the end of the first 20 minutes thanks to three-point shooting and transition offense.

Much like they did in their first four games this season (all blow out wins against non-power conference teams), the Terps have found success with their pressure defense. They’ve forced 10 turnovers and grabbed eight steals, led by Greivis Vasquez and Landon Milbourne, who have three thefts a piece. The Terps have nine fast break points and nine points off turnovers.

But unlike anything we’ve seen in the first nine games of the season, the Terps’ other redeeming quality in the half was being on fire from three-point range.

Vasquez drilled a trey on the team’s first possession of the game and overall they’ve hit 9-of-14 three-point attempts. The stars of the show have been Vasquez and Tucker, who are both 3-for-3 from deep.

With 11 points, Tucker’s already set a season-high.

Vasquez has forced some shots in the lane, but his stat line is already looking good with 11 points, five assists, three steals and two rebounds in 16 minutes.

Winston-Salem State has hung around thanks to a gritty effort that’s included outrebounding the Terps 19-14 and shooting a respectable 47 percent. Forward Paul Davis has thrown down a couple of monster dunks that show the team belongs on this court tonight.

The second half is about to tip-off.

Check out a full gamer on www.diamondbackonline.com later tonight.

Eric Detweiler is The Diamondback’s Terrapin Men’s Basketball Team beat writer. He can be reached at edetweilerdbk@gmail.com. You can follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/edetweiler.

It’s about 45 minutes before game time here at Comcast Center where the Terps are preparing to take on Winston-Salem State.

The main nugget of news to get to comes from the end of the bench as junior walk-on David Pearman will miss the game because of a sprained right knee.

Pearman hasn’t played since Nov. 23 against Chaminade because of coach’s decision, so don’t expect it to have a great impact on what the Terps are trying to do against the Rams. According to a team official, the injury isn’t considered serious and he’ll be re-evaluated before Sunday’s game against Florida Atlantic.

In other news, it looks like Jin Soo Choi got a haircut during his finals week break. In other words, not a whole lot going on in advance of this one. Some fans are slowly starting to creep into Comcast Center, but it’s pretty clear the place won’t be near full tonight.

The biggest story line is the Terps just getting back on the court for the first time since knocking off Eastern Kentucky 10 days ago.

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It’s easy to expect that Winston-Salem State won’t provide the type of defensive challenge that the Terp men’s basketball team faced during a run of five consecutive fairly tough opponents heading into the break for final exams.

The Rams, who will move back down to Division II next season, have scored 60 points or less in five of their six losses this season.

But the Terps will try to look at the game as a chance to build upon the defensive work they’ve been focusing on during their break since beating Eastern Kentucky on Dec. 12.

The main mantra, according to guard Sean Mosley, has been not taking any posession for granted and going hard for every loose ball and rebound. And from watching the tape, coach Gary Williams is sure his team has another gear to tap into to get back to the form that basically carried the same group of players to last season’s late success.

Yes, at this juncture in the season, effort is the one defensive factor that the Terps hope to turnaround in a hurry.

“Don’t get me wrong, we’re a decent defensive team,” Williams said. “I have expectations about this team defensively and I’ll try to push them to their best possible level.”

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