Maryland Gets The Win, Overcomes Turnover Problems

Mitch Stringer-USA TODAY Sports

Turnovers, turnovers, TURNOVERS!

I remember hearing my basketball coach in high school yelling that at my team a few times in the locker room. Turnovers or a lack thereof will make you or break you as a team. A team might have all the talent and athleticism in the world, but if they turn the ball over, they are going to have a rough time coming out with a win.

On Wednesday night, Maryland (1-1) played their first home game of the season against the Abilene Christian Wildcats (0-3) who just moved up to Division 1 this year. With that said, Maryland should have been able to run the floor and beat them inside and out from the get-go.

But, the turnovers came back to haunt a team that has the talent, athleticism, and experience to not only make it to the NCAA tournament this year, but also be ranked in the top 25 come the end of the regular season.

At halftime, the Wildcats were leading 30-29. This was the home opener against a new Division 1 team. I wasn’t there but I’m sure there was no energy in Comcast for much of the first half and for the start of the second. The Terps had 12 turnovers compared to the Wildcats five. Sophomore forward, Charles Mitchell explained the start of the game.

"“I feel like we came out flat the first half.  We didn’t have a lot of energy…”"

Flat is right! But like I said before, turnovers can play a large part in victory or defeat. I’m sure Coach Turgeon told the guys to cut down on their turnovers and play like everyone knows they should play against that team. Sure enough in the second half, Maryland only committed five turnovers while Abilene Christian committed 11.

The Terps went on to shut down the Wildcats from putting the ball through the basket in the last 14 minutes of the game. Maryland got the win with the final score of 67-44.

The good news is, Maryland earned their first win of the season. The bad news is, if they come out playing flat like this in future games the end result will not be as nice.

Nobody is fearing the turtle just yet, but the season is young and this team looks promising.

Go Terps!