Terps trade blows in back-and-forth second half

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. - Almost as impressive as the Terrapins' 82-80 win at No. 1-ranked North Carolina is the way the Terps stayed composed in a see-saw second half that came down to the last second.

The Terps had control of the game for the first 25 minutes, which played a huge part in quieting the loud Smith Center.

"We had to start off hard," James Gist said. "Playing against the No. 1 team, we had to set the tone. We had to let them know, 'Look we're here to play.' So I mean we kinda did that, we established how we were gonna play for the rest of the game."

After blowing an 11-point lead, the Terps were able to fend off a big North Carolina run that tied the game. But from that point on, the arena was rocking, as almost all of the 21,033 fans in attendance were on their feet.

The Terps are such a young team, and they could have wilted under pressure and given in to the hostile environment. But the Terps didn't and found a way to pull off the shocker.

"We really worked hard the whole game," Greivis Vasquez said. "It's not easy to come over here and get a win. The fans are unbelievable. They really support their team. It was hard; it was hard. It takes a lot of concentration; it takes a lot of everything."

As Saturday's game progressed, Vasquez was jawing with some North Carolina fans, prompting the crowd to boo almost every time he touched the ball.

After the game, Vasquez, who has taken his fair share of criticism this season, had some choice words for the Terp fans watching at home.

"I don't care about the fans no more. They all criticize. That's how life is," he said. "The [North Carolina] fans in here - they were with the team the whole time. They were down 10, they were down two, they were with the team the whole time. You don't see that at Comcast sometimes. That's why I get upset. Now everybody likes us because we just beat the No. 1 team in the nation. We're gonna keep it humble. This is a great win for us, but it's early in the ACC. We gotta win at least 12 games so we can get to the tournament."

Defending Hansbrough

For the second consecutive year, the Terps can largely attribute their two-point win over North Carolina to the interior defense, specifically on Tyler Hansbrough.

The All-American scored 17 points and pulled down 14 rebounds, but he was just 6-of-15 from the field and never seemed comfortable down low. Bambale Osby, Dave Neal and Shane Walker all took turns bumping with Hansbrough, with Osby getting most of the work.

"It wasn't really to mug him, but just to throw him off his position," Osby said. "If you let him catch it in the paint or the box, he'll score. In the first half, I think he only had like two points. He was shooting tough shots, and we were just trying not to give him anything."

Coach Gary Williams said the strategy going into the game was to double-team him, but when that didn't work, adjustments were made.

"He's so tough," said Williams, who compared Hansbrough to Lonny Baxter. "If he starts making those jump shots, it's really gonna be a problem. If you make a mistake at all defensively, and they're a good passing team, they give him the ball where he can just turn and go. I don't know what defense there is to stop that if he gets that on you.

"So we really worked on trying to prevent him from getting the angle. That was really what we tried to do. We opened the game trying to double off [Marcus] Ginyard, but he hit two threes, so we had to get away from that. So the second half we were just trying to get as much help in there as possible without getting beat by [Wayne] Ellington or someone like that."

It also helped the Terps that the officials let the teams play physical basketball, without calling too many touch fouls.

"Great benefit," Neal said. "You don't see that a lot during the ACC games, which favor Tyler a little bit. Tonight [the officials] kinda just let us play. It turned out to be a good thing, and it was just a lot of fun."

The game-winner

Osby's layup with 21 seconds left turned out to be the game-winner, and it was also the result of a broken play.

"I didn't really see the call what we were supposed to run," Osby said. "Landon [Milbourne] came out, James came to the high post, and I got my hand up. I said, 'Look man, these guys can't stop me.' I grabbed the ball and laid it in, and just sprinted back on defense."

When asked what this win compared to, Osby came up with quite an unusual analogy.

"This compares to an astronaut taking out the dinosaurs," he said.

Gist's monster game

It was clear that Gist was the best player on the floor on Saturday.

Whenever the Terps needed a key basket in the second half, it was Gist who delivered. The senior forward was 9-for-18, scored a game-high 22 points and pulled down 13 rebounds.

"James has played great the last month; he's really stepped it up," Williams said. "He wasn't playing well early, and we just talked about his senior year. I told him how badly I wanted him to have a good senior year because he's been a good program player. He hasn't complained, he's worked hard, he made the Pan-Am team this summer, and I think he set a lot of expectations for himself."

Gist was able to score from everywhere on the court. He was hitting 3-pointers, turn-arounds and even fade-aways. And, of course, he managed to throw down a couple of dunks, one of which will surely make the highlight reels. Gist followed up on a missed shot and threw down the rebound over Hansbrough.

"When you play a game like this, it's all about who wants it more," Gist said. "Every play we had to work hard."

Hayes returns

Eric Hayes unexpectedly returned to the lineup, scoring eight points in 13 minutes. All four of his shots were 3-pointers, and two went in.

On Friday, Williams said it would take "a miracle" for Hayes to return from an ankle sprain to play against the Tar Heels.

"I thought Eric would be ready about [next] Tuesday," Williams said. "We were looking at this week as a week where we get everything in place with the fact that we can use Adrian [Bowie] and Cliff [Tucker] now, and Greivis and Eric Hayes didn't have to play 35 minutes, 36 minutes a game."

Bowie and Tucker once again each contributed solid minutes, even in crucial spots in the second half. Late in the game, Williams used Hayes primarily in an offense-only role.

Up next

After wins like this, a letdown is always possible.

Luckily for the Terps, they don't play again until No. 5 Duke rolls into town on Jan. 27. Until then, the Terps have a few days to enjoy the victory and prepare for the hated Blue Devils.

Williams is hoping his seniors will help the team avoid any type of letdown, although it's hard to imagine one with Duke coming to Comcast Center.

"What can happen with a win like this - we'll see how our team is - sometimes you really have to work hard to get their attention after a game like this," Williams said. "Hopefully our guys are mature enough."

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