Terps fall to American

With 10 days to get over their last crushing loss, the Terrapin men's basketball team once again suffered defeat at the hands of a mid-major Saturday.

The Terps (6-6, 0-1 ACC) fell at home to American 67-59, a poor follow-up to a Dec. 12 home loss to Ohio University. The loss marks the first time the Terps have dropped three straight home games since Feb. 1993 and their first 6-6 start since the 1995-96 season.

Another listless first half performance - one in which they went nine minutes without scoring and shot just 20 percent from the floor - led to the Terps first loss against the Eagles (7-5) in 15 matchups. The Eagles out-rebound the Terps 40-33 and scored 24 points off turnovers to spark the upset.

"I'm tired of teams coming in here with a higher intensity level than our team," said coach Gary Williams. "We just didn't play well enough. We don't seem able to put the ball in the basket with any consistency from any one player.

"I'm hurt," Williams admitted.

American was up 12 points with 11:33 left in the second half. The Eagles were led by guard Derrick Mercer and forward Bryce Simon, putting up 18- and 17-point nights respectively.

The Terps closed the deficit to five after sophomore guard Greivis Vasquez nailed his sixth three pointer of the game to make the game 60-55 with just 48 seconds left. But as rampant fouling began, the Terps fell short.

American went on to hit 7 of its next 8 free throws to close out the seven-point win. Only a three-pointer with five seconds remaining by sophomore guard Eric Hayes spared the Terps of a double-digit loss.

"Our defense, for the most part, was decent," said Hayes, who had 16 points and made four three-pointers. "We have to be able to score more than 50 points a game; you're not going to win many games scoring like that."

The Terps held American to just 25 points in the first half. But after going up 11-7, they failed to score until a Vasquez free throw nine minutes later. By that point, the Eagles were beginning to take control of the game.

Williams was frustrated with his team's anemic offense.

"This is the ACC, we're supposed to make 15-footers," Williams said. "You're supposed to make 10-footers. You're supposed to make five-footers and get offensive rebounds and not drop them.

"That's what teams at this level have been able to do here for 18 years," Williams said.

Junior forward Dave Neal made his first appearance for the Terps since injuring his left shoulder over a month ago and started the second half along with senior center Bambale Osby, replacing sophomore Landon Milbourne and freshman Braxton Dupree.

But the Terps defensive strengths turned into weaknesses as they gave up 42 second half points, including three critical baskets by Mercer that buffered the Eagles' lead after Terp baskets that seemed to change the momentum.

Vasquez led the Terps with 28 points while senior forward James Gist fouled out with five minutes left in the game after scoring only three points and grabbing four rebounds.

"Every time we come out on the court we want to win, I'm not going to give up on this team," Gist said. "It's still possible to bounce back from this, it's getting to the point where it's enough talk and it's just about finding out what's wrong."

Williams and the players were visibly frustrated after the game and talked about what needs to be done to reverse the team's current losing streak.

"We just have to sit back and focus on the main reason that we're here- to play basketball," said Millbourne, who had four points on 1 of 7 shooting. "We just have to shut everything out, offensively we just have to trust our offense and make our open looks."

"When you play with a greater level of intensity, shots go in," Williams said. "We're six months away from winning 25 games, it's not that long ago but it's something we have to get back." akrautdbk@gmail.com