Breakneck pace hits Terps hard in Carolina loss

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – It took all of four seconds after an errant second-half shot from Jordan Williams for North Carolina to move into a gear only one Terrapin men's basketball player could seemingly match Sunday night.

After Tar Heel forward John Henson grabbed the miss, No. 13 North Carolina was off, flying down the floor with a string of passes. When guard Dexter Strickland elevated for his attempted layup, guard Terrell Stoglin was the lone Terp back in time to do anything about it. His foul sent Strickland to the free-throw line, where the sophomore coolly hit two to put the Tar Heels back up by double digits, 58-47.

While North Carolina won the battle on the boards with a much taller frontline, it also beat the Terps (18-11, 7-7 ACC) at their own game — pushing the ball in transition for easy points. Time after time in their 87-76 win, the Tar Heels turned defensive rebounds into breakaways, catching the slower Terps off guard and out of place throughout the game.

Their breakneck pace made it difficult to cut into the comfortable lead they held for the majority of the game, and despite the Terps' 16-10 advantage in fast-break points, North Carolina found other ways to capitalize on its speed.

Tar Heel forward Tyler Zeller beat Williams, who was suffering from a stomach virus, several times down the court for easy layups his Terp teammates could hardly contest.

Stoglin, who finished with a career-high 28 points, said that while offensive rebounding played a factor in the defeat, the Tar Heels' ability to beat the Terps downcourt had a bigger role.

"Our defense was caught off guard," Stoglin said. "Every time we got a basket, they would just push the ball and get transition baskets. That was really what was killing us."

Stoglin said coach Gary Williams implored the team to get back on defense during halftime, but his words didn't seem to make much of a difference. Led by talented point guard Kendall Marshall, the Tar Heels continued their fast-paced offense.

The freshman, who took over the starting job in mid-January, made just one basket but controlled the game's tempo and finished with almost as many assists (10) as the Terps combined for Sunday (12).

Even when Marshall was out, Strickland kept the offense running fluidly against the Terps. The sophomore finished with eight assists and just one turnover, a statline largely reflected in the Tar Heels' impressive assist-to-turnover ratio (2.09).

No Terp, meanwhile, finished with more than three assists, and Stoglin and guard Pe'Shon Howard combined for five turnovers on a night the team's own ratio dipped below 1 (0.92).

"We don't have the luxury of playing below a certain level against a team like Carolina," Gary Williams said. "We couldn't get up to the level we had to."

The Terps' recently productive offense failed to match North Carolina's, with Stoglin's and Jordan Williams' scoring burden largely unsupported by others. After five players scored in double figures against Florida State on Wednesday, just two reached that mark against the Tar Heels.

Afterward, the stark disparities on the statsheets before them left Gary Williams and his team searching for words as they tried to make sense of their latest unraveling.

"We weren't able to get done what we did last game," Williams said. "I'd like to know where it came from."

TERP NOTE: Stoglin garnered his second straight ACC Rookie of the Week honor yesterday after averaging 22.5 points per game in two contests last week.

ceckard@umdbk.com