The Terp men’s basketball team sent a strong message to New Hampshire that they weren’t interested in playing around the night before an early morning flight to Hawaii by scoring the game’s first nine points.
They rode that momentum to a 40-22 halftime lead.
The stat lines look awfully good right now for the Terps, who shot 50 percent as a team in the half.
Forward Landon Milbourne scored nine of the team’s first 16 points and leads the team with 13 points. Guard Eric Hayes hit three three-pointers to provide an offensive spark for the second straight game. And maybe most impressively, guard Sean Mosley has five points and six assists right now.
The Wildcats looked absolutely unprepared for the Terps’ fullcourt pressure defense early on, and although they clearly regrouped as the half went on, they have 13 turnovers right now.
The only question mark is guard Greivis Vasquez, who is struggling for the third straight game with his shooting. He hit 1-of-3 shots and left the game after picking up his second foul late in the first half clearly frustrated. It’ll be interesting to see if he makes more of an effort to shoot his way out of this early slump.
Also notable, forward Jin Soo Choi, who is dressed after missing Tuesday’s game with an ankle injury, has not played. The Terps went to a four-guard lineup when forward Landon Milbourne took a break.
But the bottom line is the Terps have this one well in hand at the moment, avoiding any chance they might be looking ahead to their Maui trip.
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.