Offense, Depth and Donta Scott: Three takeaways from Maryland men’s basketball’s first loss at Clemson

Courtesy of Maryland Athletics

The Terps were looking to extend their tape to v-0 to commencement the season, instead, Clemson handed them their get-go loss and left them with more to learn moving forward. Clemson's overall dominance pitted confronting Maryland's uninspired play translated to a Tiger victory on a 67-51 scoreline.

"We gotta respond," senior Darryl Morsell said. "We'll go back, await at the film, meet what we tin meliorate on."

Here are my three takeaways from Wednesdays ACC/Large 10 Challenge confronting Clemson.

Clemson's defense was meliorate than Maryland's crime.

A combination of poor shooting, tentativeness, and a slew of needless turnovers inevitably led to Maryland's downfall. However, what stood out was the Tiger's relentlessness on the defensive side of the ball.

"We were out of sync all night," caput coach Mark Turgeon said "We were never really in sync offensively."

Clemson'south defensive prowess was evident early and resulted in a tepid first half performance by Maryland. The Terps shot below 30% from the charity stripe and three point line and converted just six field goals past the end of the half. Maryland totaled simply 15 points in the first half. This, coupled with ten turnovers in the get-go period, guided the Tigers to a considerable lead that the Terps were never able to overcome. Although the turnovers subsided and Maryland found a steady and efficient offense in the 2d half, it took only a conservative effort of maintaining the lead by Clemson to finally nail the Terps.

Aamir Simms is a big fourth dimension player, as advertised.

Clemson forward Aamir Simms led both teams in scoring with xvi points. And Simms, only as the defense did, asserted his dominance early, tallying 12 points in his first 13 minutes of play. The piece of work of the senior big was largely due to Maryland's lack of depth at the center position. The lack of a confident, consistent force at the five has previously been negligible when information technology came to influencing Maryland'southward ability to beat teams. However, as Maryland looks to play more talented programs in the Large Ten led by adept bigs such every bit Iowa'southward Luka Garza and Illinois' Kofi Cockburn, their negligible traits volition apace plough into glaring drawbacks moving frontwards. The Terps have to discover a reliable centre if they promise to capture the same success in the Big X as they accept in years past.

Donta Scott's success on the offensive end continues.

At the end of the first half and particularly as Clemson's pb began to diminish, Donta Scott was the biggest difference maker for Maryland offensively. He was the just Terp to knock down a three in the offset-half and led the squad with 11 points. The sophomore big continued his success by leading a more than lively offensive charge in the 2d half with eight points. Scott's scoring in the final one-half fueled the 17-four run by the Terps that helped cut Clemson'due south 23 signal pb to just 12.

"I thought Donta played with a lot more than toughness in the 2d half," Turgeon said. "He'southward been arguably our all-time player the last two games,"

While Scott's scoring had no major impact on the final scoreline, his efforts were a continuation of his gradual improvement from his freshman season. It'southward also another sign that Scott volition play a bigger role throughout the flavor as Maryland's become-to forcefulness in the frontcourt.

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Source: http://wmucsports.net/offense-depth-and-donta-scott-three-takeaways-from-maryland-mens-basketballs-first-loss/

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