The Terrapin men's basketball team could barely bury a bucket from beyond the arc, and the press they were using defensively wasn't creating any havoc for the Michigan offense.
Then halftime came.
Trailing by six at the break, the Terps (5-2) morphed into precision gunners and padlock defenders for the first 4:16 of the second half as they erupted for a 16-3 run to put them ahead by seven.
The Wolverines (5-2) would briefly regain the lead, but the Terps finally had life - something they desperately lacked during a lethargic first half. And they used it to push them to a 75-70 win Wednesday night at Comcast Center, their fourth consecutive victory in the ACC-Big Ten Challenge.
"I told them we were gonna win the game ... if you guys come out and outwork them in the second half," coach Gary Williams said of his halftime speech. "I thought we played with more intensity, more enthusiasm, more intensity; our defense was better; and all of a sudden, we made shots that we were missing in the first half."
"Coach Williams got us really fired up," senior Dave Neal said. "He knew the first three minutes of halftime were going to be big for us."
The run began with a Greivis Vasquez steal, followed by the Terps guard hitting a 3-pointer.
Vasquez continued to dazzle in the second half, following what he called "the worst game of my life since I've been playing basketball," against Georgetown on Sunday.
He didn't just rebound in that sense, though - he rebounded on the court, pulling down a game-high 12 boards while also compiling game-highs in points (23), assists (six) and steals (three). Vasquez only had one turnover to accompany his renaissance performance.
"In my country, there's a saying: If you're the man, if you're the big guy, if I'm the best player, I gotta act like the best player," Vasquez said. "So I gotta be the best at rebounding, assists, points, everything they do on the court. I'm just trying to be the best I can be. I was the best today, and we got the win."
Neal got the first start of his career, filling in for center Braxton Dupree, whom Williams didn't play due to the sophomore missing class Monday. Another change in the starting unit was guard Adrian Bowie, who stepped in for the Cliff Tucker/Sean Mosley combination. It was the third starting lineup Williams has used in seven games this season.
The alterations didn't incite the Terps like Williams had hoped, as the team was careless with the ball early and made just 1-of-11 3-pointers while falling behind early.
But the Terps trotted out the same five for the start of the second half, and it all began to click.
Forward Dino Gregory absorbed many of the free minutes left open by Dupree's absence, and responded with active interior defense and seven rebounds for a Terps team in dire need for an emerging presence in the paint.
"I thought he was a force defensively," Williams said. "I thought he really made us bigger when he was out there, which is what we need."
With the Terps up 63-61, forward Landon Milbourne missed an ill-advised fall-away jumper, but made amends by blocking a shot on the other end and jamming home a no-look pass from Vasquez on the ensuing fast break to put the Terps up by four with a little more than four minutes to play.
"He went up kind of soft, so I blocked it, and Greivis got the [ball], so I just ran," Milbourne said. "Me and Greivis, if you look at the tape from last year, most of my dunks are coming from him, when he's running down the court, he looks - he sees me. And he just dished it off to me, and I finished it off."
After a timeout, the Terps followed the sequence with another defensive stop and a Neal 3-pointer from the baseline to move ahead by seven.
Playing from behind, the Wolverines hit three triples in the final two minutes, but the Terps made their free throws down the stretch to ice their fifth win of the season.
"What we did to win this game tonight - we worked hard, just trust me on that, we worked hard Monday and Tuesday when we were tired." Williams said. "But now we've gotta work hard even though we'll feel good tomorrow. If we lose Sunday, all that goes away."
mseligdbk@gmail.com
Be the first to comment on this article!