Lahaina, Hawaii – As Terrapin basketball coach Gary Williams walked to the locker room at halftime of yesterday’s Maui Invitational opener against Chaminade with a look of perturbed consternation, his eyes kept darting toward the scoreboard in the tiny Lahaina Civic Center.
Even after a sloppy, back-and-forth first half, Williams’ team still led the Division II squad by 10 entering the break.
It took more time than they probably expected, but the No. 21 Terps eventually shook off tournament host Chaminade for an easy 79-51 win. The Terps will play Cincinnati, which upset No. 24 Vanderbilt 67-58 earlier in the day, at 7 p.m. Eastern Standard Time in today’s second round.
“That first game is always tough in any tournament, especially in this situation,” Williams said. “I was just pleased that we were able to sustain pretty good effort in the second half and be a little bit more consistent.”
Guard Sean Mosley finished with a career high-tying 19 points and 8 rebounds, and the Terps pushed through a poor start and foul trouble to break away from the Silverswords. Guard Eric Hayes added 12 points and forward Jordan Williams had nine points and 10 rebounds to lead the Terps to their eighth 4-0 start in Williams’ 21 seasons.
Chaminade (0-1) may have never seriously threatened an attention-grabbing upset, but they made the Terps work for a second-round date with the Bearcats and former recruiting target Lance Stephenson.
“Everything happened for a reason,” Mosley said. “And in the second half we came out and played much better.”
Chaminade’s section of the 2,400-seat arena, which was mostly students and included the Lahaina High School marching band, seemed delighted at each early Terp miscue.
Guard Greivis Vasquez got whistled for two charges in the first four minutes and was sent to the bench. Mosley missed a breakaway lay-up. The Terps missed nine of their first 12 shots and finished the half with seven turnovers.
When Chaminade forward Shane Hanson drained a pair of threes, the Silverswords had an early edge. Chaminade continued to match the Terps basket for basket, keeping the tournament favorite out of the lead until Cliff Tucker’s hanging putback with 7:04 left made it 18-16.
But after that, the Terps never trailed.
Their combination of size and athleticism was too much for the young Silverswords, who returned just one player who played in last season’s Maui Invitational. The Terps made five of their last six shots in the half to take their largest lead to that point, 36-26, into the intermission.
“If they were making a lot of threes it woulda been tough for us to stay in the game,” Hayes said. “But I think throughout the game we kinda wore them down with our bench … and our pressure defense.”
Even then, the Terps couldn’t pull away against the pesky Silverswords in the second half as easily as they did in their first three blowout wins. Milbourne battled foul trouble and the Terps, who created a season-low 15 turnovers, struggled to create the transition offense that’s allowed them to score in bunches.
Ultimately, Chaminade, which earned its last tournament win in 2007, ran out of steam with just six field goals in the game’s final 14:14 and the Terps pulled away.
“I was worried,” Williams said of the back-and-forth start. “I’m always worried.”
edetweiler@umdbk.com
Be the first to comment on this article! Log in to Comment
You must be logged in to comment on an article. Not already a member? Register now