Maryland Gets Big Win Over Colorado, 78-71

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After finding no offensive rhythm whatsoever against Alabama Thursday, Maryland was able to turn it around with a pretty big win, defeating Colorado 78-71 in the loser’s bracket of the Puerto Rico Tip-Off Friday night.

Terrell Stoglin scored a career-high 32 points, and made 12 of 21 shots. Stoglin, Sean Mosley, and Nick Faust were a combined 11-19 from beyond the arc, as the Terps in general shot 49.1% from the floor (almost double yesterday’s percentage). Maryland had good ball movement throughout most of the game and succeeded with a seven and a half man rotation (walk-on Jonathan Thomas played eight minutes).

Mychal Parker started his second game of the year – this time for James Padgett. Maryland ran with a four-guard set for a large portion of the game, and the added speed helped. For the first time during the regular season this year, the Terps finished with a positive assist-to-turnover ratio (10-8), but still managed to outrebound the Buffaloes by a margin of 37 to 29.

For Colorado, it was Andre Roberson who ran the show. The sophomore is built like a forward at 6’7″ but plays like a guard, and scored 21 points with 13 rebounds. Guard Carlon Brown also hit three three pointers, and Austin Dufault scored 12.

Mosley finished the game with 16 points and seven rebounds, and hit four three-pointers (a career high). The freshman Faust had the best offensive game of his budding collegiate career, with 15 points, five rebounds and three assists. Parker impressed again, scoring eight points with five rebounds, and Ashton Pankey scored three points with six rebounds before fouling out.

Padgett only scored two points in 22 minutes off the bench, but gathered seven rebounds and had a block. Berend Weijs stayed out of foul trouble for the first time this season, and had three rebounds in 14 minutes in addition to being on the receiving end of a nice little alley-oop.

Overall, it was a very good game for Maryland. They didn’t play quite as well defensively as they did during the first two games, but they stepped up their offensive game quite a bit (thanks largely to Stoglin finding his shot) and beat a high-major opponent. Colorado is a team that lost their top four scorers from last year, but they’re still a talented bunch and Roberson looks like a legitimate star. This is a team Maryland could have lost to, especially after being beaten badly by Alabama just the day before, but they didn’t, and that say wonders about Mark Turgeon and this team’s resiliency.

The big men weren’t as effective scoring-wise as they have been, but they rebounded and fed the ball to the outside, letting the guards hit those eleven threes. The four guard set did the job, and it’ll be interesting to see if Turgeon chooses to continue running with it.