COLLEGE PARK, M.D.—The Terrapin level of defense was on high from the start of the game. Defense gave way to multiple fast break opportunities and Maryland took full advantage of them on their way to a third straight victory in the early 2009-10 college basketball season.

 

The Terps seemed to be purely, too much for UNH. Case in point—with  about 11 minutes left in the first half Maryland senior guard Eric Hayes, as he was dribbling down court, simply lost the ball to a UNH defender. Hayes then casually stole the ball back and was able to lay the ball off to a cutting Cliff Tucker for the easy score to put the Terps up 18-9.

The Terrapin pressure was able to force UNH to cough the ball up 13 times and shoot just 6-for-23 (26.1%) in the first half.

Hayes (11) and senior forward Landon Milbourne (13) led the team in scoring with Hayes going 4-5 overall from the field and 3-4 from three.

Greivis Vasquez continued his stellar passing of the season, although assisting on only one Maryland bucket in the first half; there was no pass prettier than the Vasquez shot fake then no-look that Hayes drained to add three to the Maryland lead. Sean Mosley took a page out of the Vasquez playbook, leading the team in assists in the first half with six.

Due to all the great teamwork, Maryland had a lead of as much as 20 points and ended the half up by 18, 40-22.

The second half bared more of the same for the Maryland as they were able to increase their lead up to as much as 35 with about 11 minutes left in the game. Leading the charge was Milbourne who reached a career high with 24 points for the game.

“He can score inside and he can score outside,” said Head Coach Gary Williams of Milbourne. “You can label him whatever number you want but he is the guy that can make jumpshots and he can score inside. He’s just a good player.”

Eric Hayes added 15 to the effort and Sean Mosley added 13, coupled with 10 assists for his first career double-double.

Maryland never trailed in the game but played defense as if they were down a point throughout.

As the Terps offense rolled downhill, shooting 56.6% from the field (64% in the second half), their defense paved the way for their momentum. Maryland was able to score 33 points off 21 UNH turnovers while holding the Wildcats to 35.3% shooting.

Maryland as a team had 23 assists compared to only 10 turnovers, freshman forward James Padgett attributes the offensive efficiency to practice, “We worked on it a lot in practice and we trusted everyone to be in their positions and we were able to successfully run the plays we wanted.”

The Terps are off to the EA Sports Maui Invitational which begins on Monday, November 23. The old sports rule of taking one game at a time was blatantly ignored by the Terps and admittedly so as they looked on to the tournament ahead.

“It’s tough to not think about the flight tomorrow morning and who we’re going to be playing out there in Maui,” said Hayes. “So we just wanted to concentrate and build off what we did in the first half and I think we did a pretty good job of staying focused in the second half.”

Not that they were overlooking UNH, but the Terps were able to use this foresight, which has been the root of many an upset, to their advantage. Instead of being lulled to sleep by such a big first half lead, the Terps were able to use the upcoming tournament as motivation as they buried the competition for a final score of 82-55.

“I don't judge the margins, scores or anything like that,” said Coach Williams. “I just try to get us to play at a certain level. A lot of the times as a coach, I work harder at these games than I do at some of the games later on because when you're functioning on all cylinders and you're a good team, you usually do the right things. Especially with a couple of the freshman out there, you're trying to teach as you go. Where we are right now it's hard to say, but we'll find out next week.”