Terps get win in only exhibition; team says improvement needed

Earlier this week, Terrapin men’s basketball coach Gary Williams expressed concern that a major blowout win in exhibition play would not do his team much good.

The 21st-year coach didn’t have to worry about that Tuesday.

Despite a gritty effort from Division II Indiana (Pa.) in which the Crimson Hawks won the rebounding battle, the Terps eased to a 75-54 win in their lone preseason exhibition at Comcast Center. But the Terp squad, missing forward Dino Gregory due to an unspecified team rules violation, emerged with a more clear understanding of what it needs to improve heading into the season opener on Nov. 13.

“We tried to take some shortcuts in terms of running our offense and playing defense, rebounding that we paid for tonight and we’ll certainly pay for as we go along,” Williams said.

Even after shooting 70.4 percent in the first half, the Terps couldn’t put away their Pennsylvania Athletic Conference foe until ending the game on an 11-4 run in the final four minutes.

The Terps showcased a balanced scoring attack. Ten of the 11 players who appeared made a field goal — even walk-on Ersin Levent, who rolled in a lay-up in the game’s last five seconds. Guard Sean Mosley demonstrated a newly confident shooting stroke by making his first five shots and rebounded from several hard hits to continue playing. He tied forward Landon Milbourne for the team high with 14 points. Guard Greivis Vasquez pitched in 13 points on 6-of-12 shooting, including a steal and left-handed lay-up off the first possession of the new season.

The result was enough to help the Terps maintain at least an eight point advantage for the entire second half. But afterward, Williams said the team needs to fix its lack of defensive intensity, something reflected in the Crimson Hawks’ 17 offensive rebounds.

“It’s the first game — it’s an exhibition game.” said guard Adrian Bowie, who chipped in eight points off the bench. “Probably everybody didn’t play as hard as they would against Duke or somebody. So we’ve got to learn from that before it’s too late, and we get blown out.”

With the Terps missing Gregory and center Steve Goins, who continues to sit with a knee injury, the Crimson Hawks matched up size-wise and weren’t afraid to bang inside, challenging freshmen James Padgett, who made his first career start in Gregory’s absence, and 6-foot-10 Jordan Williams, who was the tallest player on the floor.

The pair rotated with each other in their Terp debuts. Padgett had eight points — including a cheer-inducing, first-half followup slam — and four rebounds, while Williams added seven points and six rebounds.

They’ll be forced to continue their quick learning curve if Gregory misses more time. Citing “federal regulations which protect the privacy of student records,” the team did not comment further on the nature of the suspension in a pregame press release or postgame.

The 6-foot-7 junior, who came on strong late last season, did not sit on the bench during the game.

Williams compared Gregory’s absence to a player spraining his ankle and said the suspension is something the team had to deal with whether they were ready or not.

“We’re fine, and we’ll be fine,” Williams said.

The Terps have more than a week to review the tape of their exhibition win before taking the Comcast Center court against Charleston Southern next Friday.

But afterward, the players were already pretty sure what they’d see in the game film.

Poor effort on the boards, an inconsistent half-court offense and a lack of quality off-the-ball defense highlighted many players’ thoughts during postgame interviews.

“I think we were just a little bit overconfident, and we can’t do that,” Vasquez said. “We just can’t. We’ve learned our lesson.”

edetweiler@umdbk.com