COLLEGE PARK, M.D. -  The first game of the season is finally here and the 16,812 fans at Comcast Center are definitely pumped. There is chatter amongst the crowd that their team can be dangerous this season and every positive play excites them beyond belief. Energy is the best word that comes to mind when describing the home crowd as it seemed to seep into the players, even before tip off, as senior guard Greivis Vasquez and senior forward Landon Milbourne began to bounce up and down, in uniform with each other, and the crowd.

 

This was the early seen in College Park as the Maryland Terrapins took on the Charleston Southern Buccaneers in the inaugural game of the season. The Terps were able to start off the season 1-0 as they crushed visiting Charleston Southern 89-51.

Milbourne scored a game-high 16 points on 7 of 10 shooting from the field. Starting in the power forward spot, he has evolved into a very solid and often exciting player for the Terrapins. Early in the first half, the game still close, the Buccaneers were able to get their hands on a stolen Terrapin’s pass. On a seemingly wide open layup attempt during the Bucs’ ensuing fastbreak, Milbourne skied for the block, grabbing the ball in mid-air with two hands just as it was about to touch the glass.

The play not only ignited a Maryland fastbreak, but an entire building that was ready to explode. Five minutes later, an Adrian Bowie lob to sophomore guard Sean Mosley set it off. Mosley was a perfect 3-3 in the first half

“My confidence on my shot is a lot consistent;” said Mosley. “It's just working for me right now. Every time I get the ball and I'm open I'm going to shoot and I feel like every time I shoot it's going in.”

Even with all that was going well for the Terps, there were still two major issues that kept Charleston Southern in the game throughout the first half: rebounding and turnovers.

Charleston Southern was able to out-rebound the Terps 23-20 in the first half, grabbing nine offensive rebounds.

“That's just something that we need to work on,” said Milbourne. “We're not a perfect team. We're not the biggest team. Last year we had a lot more fight than we do right now and we're just trying to get back to that.”

The Terps offensive seemed overly excited in the opening minutes of the game. There was good passing that led to nine assists in the first half but there was also bad passing that led to turnovers.

 “We did a good job of doing what we had to do,” said Maryland Head Coach Gary Williams. “I thought in the first half we didn't have the patience in our offense but that is normal when you're excited, so we were a little quick with our offense. We slowed down and were able to get really good looks in the second half. The thing that pleased me with our offense was that we were a very good passing team. We made the extra pass and gave guys the easy shot down the court.”

The Terps were able to shrug off a spectacular baseline drive and dunk from Charleston Southern’s Kelvin Martin on three Terps defenders and a good all around game from Jamarco Warren (14 points), to dominate the second half of the game.

The Terps were able to reverse the rebounding numbers, recording 23 of their own compared to 20 by the Bucs. Freshman C/F Jordan Williams appeared to take the duty of rebounding upon himself as he fought in the second half to secure every loose ball en route to leading the team in rebounds.

“We didn't rebound well at all in the first half and we had to pick it up. I think (J.Williams and freshman James Padgett) helped us in the second half,” said Coach Williams.

Greivis Vasquez who last year led the team in scoring, rebounds and assists only shot 3-14 from the field but still managed to have a huge impact on the game as he finished with four steals and 13 assists. One assist in particular had the crowd buzzing as he performed a double wrap around pass to Mosley on a fast break. Vasquez had several other fancy passes that led to easy scores for his teammates, something he says he relishes just as much as victories.

“It was a team effort…I was way off from the field today,” said Vasquez. “That doesn’t matter to me; I think I have to have better shot selection.”

Vasquez went on to say, “I’m happy for my teammates. To me scoring nine points or seven points and just getting a win is important to me. I'm not worried about me scoring 25 points or being the leading scorer. I’m worried about winning games... To me it's more important to average 10 assists a game and that will make me feel better because now I can play the role that I always wanted to play which is the point guard and at times I can play the two-guard. But I thought it was a great win and I'm happy personally and I'm sure everybody is happy about it.”

Now at 1-0 Maryland’s next challenge is at home against Fairfield on Tuesday, November 17.