Stoglin doing it all so far for Terps

WASHINGTON – Few in Verizon Center had any doubts about which player Terrapins men's basketball coach Mark Turgeon would turn to in the game's closing seconds to seal a win Sunday against Notre Dame.

For better or worse, guard Terrell Stoglin is this year's go-to scorer, willing to launch a shot in any situation and against any defender. So to no one's surprise, it was the sophomore trying to drive into the paint before pulling back and letting an off-balance, midrange jumper fly with 13 seconds remaining and his Terps clinging to a three-point lead.

Stoglin appeared to be fouled on the play, but fought through the contact and somehow willed the shot into the hoop. The late-game jumper sealed an eventual 78-71 win, the Terps' first major victory of the season.

"Terrell hit the big shot," Turgeon said. "Well, he had a lot of them."

The score gave Stoglin a game-high 31 points, one shy of a career high he set earlier this season against Colorado. With yet another dominant scoring performance, Stoglin retained his conference scoring lead, and he averages 22.4 points per game entering tonight's contest against Mount St. Mary's (1-6).

Much of his scoring this season has come within the flow of the offense and from the free-throw line, where he is second in the ACC with 46 made shots. But oftentimes this season, Stoglin has decided to call for his own shot.

On several occasions, he's taken on two or three defenders, penetrating to the basket or pulling back for a difficult 3-pointer. His confident, and often reckless, play on the offensive end has led to headaches for Turgeon and the Terps (4-3), but also a handful of wins.

His 25-point second half-outburst against Colorado on Nov. 18 helped the Terps recover from an embarrassing offensive performance against Alabama the day before, while his sweet shooting Sunday led to another Terps victory.

He cracked 500 career points against Illinois last week after 39 games, becoming the fourth-fastest Terp to reach the mark — sooner than former Terps greats Juan Dixon, Keith Booth and Greivis Vasquez.

"He's like World B. Free," Notre Dame coach Mike Brey said, referencing a former NBA player known for his high-risk shots. "He's the microwave of College Park. He makes tough shots.

"He's a heck of a scorer."

For much of the season, though, Stoglin has been just about the team's only scorer. His ACC-leading scoring average contrasts with the Terps' 66.7 points per game, which falls near the bottom of the conference. He accounts for 33.5 percent of the team's scoring, a mark that ranks among the top 10 in the country.

"For us to be any good, [the scoring] has to spread out a little bit," Turgeon said before the Notre Dame game.

But Stoglin is the lone Terp to have any consistency in his college career as a scorer. Guard Sean Mosley is the only other player on the roster to score more than 20 points in a game, and Mosley and Stoglin are the only players on the team to average more than 10 points per game.

Because few, if any, teammates can match his proficiency, Stoglin has said several times this season that he feels the pressure is on him to carry the team's scoring burden. He even went to Turgeon in the second half of Sunday's game pleading for more plays to be run for him as he watched the team's double-digit lead dwindle to one point.

"I was just trying to stay aggressive," Stoglin said. "I wanted to stay inside of the plays."

To win games this season, though, the Terps need to find scoring options outside of No. 12, Turgeon said.

"If Terrell is struggling," Mosley said, "someone else has to step up into that role."

And after Stoglin scored 11 of the team's first 12 points Sunday against Notre Dame, his teammates started contributing. Mosley helped ease some of the burden, scoring 17 points, while forward James Padgett added 11. Guard Mychal Parker set a career high in scoring (nine), and center Berend Weijs tied his career-best mark (seven).

"It helps a lot because it puts more pressure on the defense," Stoglin said. "It leads to the win, and that's what we did today."