Williams leads comeback in men's basketball's win vs. Elon

Animated and annoyed on the sidelines, Gary Williams saw his young Terrapin men's basketball team unravel against a supposedly overmatched nonconference team early Friday night, committing turnovers, missing shots and playing lethargic defense.

After two missed layups by forward Dino Gregory, an errant 3-pointer by guard Pe'Shon Howard and a wild drive and miss from guard Adrian Bowie, the Terps watched Elon guard Jack Isenbarger nail a 3-pointer to put the Phoenix up 11 less than 10 minutes into the game.

This wasn't a top-ranked team or even an ACC rival. That didn't stop the Terps from holding the lead for all of 27 seconds in the first half against a school that won just nine games last season and hadn't beaten an ACC school in five years.

"It's a 40-minute game, and we didn't play that way in the first half," Williams said. "Elon played with more emotion than we did in the first half."

That changed after intermission. In the second half, the Terps (5-2) finally managed a strong defensive effort and a renewed focus on finding forward Jordan Williams in the paint to erase an early double-digit deficit and run away from Elon, 76-57.

On the way to a three-point first-half deficit, the Terps allowed six Phoenix 3-pointers and committed 10 turnovers. Williams, meanwhile, couldn't find his shot and finished with just four points.

But in the opening minutes of the second half, the Terps raced back. Williams blocked two shots on Elon's second possession, and then guard Sean Mosley added a high-flying swat the next time the Phoenix attacked the basket. The Terps' full-court pressure also forced back-to-back jump balls in the half's opening two minutes.

Slowly, their own shots started to fall as the Terps looked back inside. They took back the lead just more than a minute into the half.

"It's frustrating," Jordan Williams said. "We keep doing this pretty much every game this season. We have to figure out what we are doing and fix it."

"We just played with more energy, more passion," Bowie said of the second half.

With more looks and confidence, Williams started looking more like the national player of the year candidate some have tabbed him as. He finished with a game-high 24 points and 13 rebounds and a career-high four blocks.

"We got the ball inside to Jordan, and he killed," Bowie said.

Rather than reaching into his bench, Gary Williams relied on his starting five to regain the lead after the lackluster first half.

"[At halftime,] he said we had to figure it out," Mosley said. "I don't know if it comes from the warm-ups before the game or if we are taking teams too lightly. ... We have to come out with the mindset that we are playing a top team every game."

"I didn't like how we handled things early on," Gary Williams said. "We didn't do that tonight. That bothers me."

Handling the point guard duties for the comeback as his freshman counterparts sat on the bench, Bowie played his best game of the season, registering 14 points, eight rebounds, seven assists and no turnovers.

With his play and Williams' dominance in the paint, the Terps managed to handle Elon (2-3) in the final 20 minutes.

"The bottom line is, Elon came here ready to play," Gary Williams said. "They gave us their best shot, which I kind of like as a competitor. I don't want them coming in here intimidated; they thought they could win."

ceckard@umdbk.com