Terrapins-49ers: The Terrapins Net Ninth Straight Win at Comcast Center.

I wonder what Maryland Terrapins Coach Gary Williams said to his team at halftime.

Trailing by as many 11 points in the first half, the Terps cut the lead down to three points and went gingerly into their locker room with the score at 41-38.

After the break, the stifling Maryland defensive pressure finally yielded positive results, and the tempo of the game turned in their favor for good.

Maryland scored 15 points in a two-minute span and never looked back to beat the UNCC 49ers 85-75, before a vibrant red-clad wearing home crowd.

Junior guard Greivis Vasquez (leader of his squad in all major statistical categories) turned in another dominant performance.

He finished with a game-high 27 points, one of five Maryland players to score in double figures.

“This is good for our team, to be down like we were early, and to see what we can do in that situation because we haven’t been that situation in awhile,” said Williams.  “To respond against a good team like we did, I was proud of our guys because we had to work to get ourselves out of a hole.”

Maryland is gearing up for their conference schedule, which is set to begin Jan. 10 against Georgia Tech.

This victory did not come easy, as Maryland failed to execute their “paint defense.”

Early on, Maryland’s mix of defensive rotations was going at a snail’s pace, allowing UNCC to sustain their lead.

Maryland’s slow footed frontcourt players gave the UNCC shooters room to move around the court, and open shots were there to be made.

The 49ers shot a surprising 47.8 percent from beyond the arc for the afternoon.

Entering yesterday’s battle in the beltway, the 49ers had made only 32.5 percent of their three-point attempts.

Facing a blend of defensive schemes that was part man-to-man and part zone, the Terps were being outrebounded which led to easy fast break opportunities.

Someone was going to half to step up and get their hands in the faces of these undaunted 49ers, if Maryland was to avoid a bad loss and the wrath of their salty coach.

Luckily, the break in action took away the 49ers momentum.

Once the Terps mustered pressure in their opponent’s offensive zone, the turnovers started to mount.

And Maryland copied what the 49ers did to them in the first half.

At 17 minutes 40 seconds remaining in the second half the Terps claimed their first lead by two free throws by forward Landon Milbourne. (13 points on five of nine field-goal attempts)

UNCC answered with a basket of its own, but its pace and precision waned.

Their lack of a strong bench was exploited once they lost a key player who went down with an ugly knee injury.

Guard Charles Dewhurst was driving towards the basket, on the left side of the lane.

As he rose to the rim for a layup, he was fouled from behind, and landed awkwardly on his right knee with all of his weight. He dislocated his kneecap, and had to be helped from the court by several assistants. The 49ers could not regain their composure after this unfortunate turn of events.

Maryland’s shooting percentage from three-point range was 40.9 percent for the game.

They also capitalized on their fast break opportunities in the second half.

During their 19-2 run that capped off the unraveling of the 49ers offensive execution, Maryland settled down and started to find open shots.

An uneven showing for the Terrapins did not hurt them against this non-conference opponent, but the fact remains the big boys in the ACC, have more than one or two weapons with which to hurt you.

In his postgame interview, Gary Williams sounded off about this very topic in dramatic fashion.

“Do what you do well, which is play defense and try to break some balls loose, and we didn’t do that early,” chirped Williams. “Once we did get the emotion up a little bit I thought we were a pretty good basketball team for about the middle 25 minutes or so.  That’s the effort we will need every game as time goes by.”

Notes

UNC-Charlotte guard Rashad Coleman had 21 points and was four for seven from three-point range.

The only other player to register points in double figures was guard Dijuan Harris with 15 points scored respectively.

For the first time this season, Maryland instituted a zone defensive scheme.