Jordan Williams, Greivis Vasquez and the rest of the Terps couldn't stop the Tribe when they needed to Wednesday night. Photo credit: The AP.
The numbers alone provide a glimpse at why the Terp men’s basketball team couldn’t quite catch William & Mary in the second half of Wednesday’s 83-77 loss at Comcast Center.
The Tribe hit 47.1 percent of their field goal attempts. The six first half three pointers helped put them in a great position. Shooting 23 second half free throws helped them salt away the win after the lead had ballooned to as much as 16 points in the final minutes.
Even if William & Mary didn’t hoist or make as many three-pointers as they have averaged this season, the visitors seemed comfortable and in control all night-often quickly answering the Terps’ biggest buckets with one of their own.
Coach Gary Williams said his team understood the challenges brought by a veteran and efficient William & Mary squad. But even if they they thought they knew what was coming, it seemed like they never quite figured out Tony Shaver’s version of the Princeton offense. The Tribe’s abundance of easy second half baskets as the Terps tried in vain to fluster them were proof enough of that.
Even though Williams emphasized team defense during the Terps’ 10-day break for final exams earlier this month, it’s pretty clear his team took a step back on Wednesday night.
Here’s some more thoughts, straight from the mouths of Terps:
Coach Gary Williams: “We knew exactly what they were going to do, and we couldn’t stop them to their credit, and they stopped us.”
Guard Eric Hayes: “They’re not the quickest guys, but when they’re shooting as well as they are, you have to get out on them, respect it and that’s when they get the back-doors and those types of things.”
Forward Landon Milbourne: “If we can’t figure out a way to stop our men from beating us off the dribble or helping each other out when we get beat, we’re going to lose games like that. We have to learn how to help each other out, we have to learn how to take accountability for our own men scoring. Once we can get that then we can win some games. Until we face that, we’re going to have a tough time.”
Guard Greivis Vasquez: “We have to have some pride. We just didn’t stop them.”
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.