Maryland falls flat at Clemson, losing 67-51 in first road game

On the road for the first time this season, Maryland (4-1) picked up its first lost of the season. The Terps couldn’t get their offense going and struggled to take care of the ball Dec. 9 in a 67-51 loss at Clemson (4-0).

“I think you have to give a lot of credit to Clemson,” Maryland head coach Mark Turgeon said. “They were terrific from beginning until the end. They made shots. Their defense was terrific. They played well. Now, we weren’t ready to play. We were out of it. We had a lot of guys not playing well. We missed layups early. We missed free throws early. And we turned the ball over. And we were about as selfish as any of my teams has ever played. So we have a lot of work to do.

“It’s early in the season. I thought we competed the last 20 minutes, cut it to 12 with the ball and then we turned it over. Who knows? There were still 10 minutes to go in the game. So if you cut that to nine or something, who knows? But we have a lot of work to do. First road game, a lot of things, we were just out of sync and I think Clemson had a lot to do with it.”

Being outscored 38-15 in the first half, Maryland entered the locker room at halftime with the fewest first half points the program has had since 2013. The Terps were much better in the second half and even outscored the Tigers by seven points after halftime, but the damage had been done and Maryland faltered for the first time this season.

“The first half we were really out of sync, turning the ball over and stuff,” said senior guard Darryl Morsell, who had four points (2-for-10 FG%), and a team-high six rebounds. “So we just focused on coming out fighting, trying to chip away at the lead, working on getting good shots for the team. To be honest, they were tougher than us tonight — mentally and physically. So that’s all we really talked about at halftime, just being tougher.”

The Tigers forced the Terps into 15 turnovers and held Maryland to just 40% shooting on Wednesday night, which helped Clemson control the game from start to finish. Even when Brad Brownwell’s squad saw its 25-point lead shrink to 12 in the second half, Maryland’s turnovers and lack of consistent offense helped open the lead back up for the Tigers.

“Credit to Clemson,” Terps junior guard Eric Ayala said. “They did a good job of denying us and getting us out of rhythm in our offense. And I think we were just scattered and trying to figure something out. And the way we played tonight is not how we practice and not acceptable.”

Maryland will have to correct its mistakes quickly with Big Ten play looming around the corner. The Terps open up their conference schedule on the road against Rutgers on Monday and can ill-afford back-to-back losses, let alone a slow start in the ultra-competitive Big Ten.

“We were just out of sync. First road game — we were out of sync. We weren’t very good, especially for having some veteran guys,” Turgeon said. “But we have a lot of basketball ahead of us and the guys will respond. They’ll respond and we’ll coach them better. And hopefully we’ll start playing better as soon as Monday because we’re going to need to as we start league play.”

But Ayala is looking on the bright side rather than harping on the loss and is glad his team is able to learn from its mistakes ahead of conference play.

“I think this will resemble how our competition will be in the Big Ten,” Ayala said. “The Big Ten is one of the best conferences in the country and we’re going to have to bring it night in and night out. So I would say that I’m glad we got to experience something like this early on so we can learn from it and be ready to approach practice differently than we have in the past.”

Maryland didn’t receive much help from its upperclassmen on Wednesday against the Tigers. Ayala (six points), Morsell (four), and Aaron Wiggins (six), combined for just 16 points and couldn’t get their shots going against the stout Clemson defense.

It’s back-to-back scoring duds for Wiggins, who has been nursing an elbow injury, but Turgeon isn’t worried about his junior wing’s health and thinks tonight’s lackluster stat line was more about Clemson’s defense rather than Wiggins’ elbow.

“I’m not concerned at all about Aaron,” Turgeon said. “He’s did get a couple of practices in. He’s got a lot going on. But I’m not concerned. They did not leave him all night. They guarded him. They had hands on him. They did a really good job of guarding them. Did he play well? No. He’ll be the first to admit it. But am I worried about Aaron Wiggins? No. He’s a much better player than he played and we have time to practice before Monday, and hopefully a lot of guys will play better in our next game.”

Despite not receiving much help from its usual scoring leaders, Maryland did receive some lift from sophomore forward Donta Scott, who had a team-high 11 points and six rebounds for the Terps.

It is Scott’s third straight game scoring in double figures and fourth in five games this season.

“[Scott] has been arguably our best player the last two games,” Turgeon said. “So we have to do a better job (of getting him the ball). We didn’t post him tonight as much as we do. We were just out of sync all night. I mean, we were never really in sync offensively and we have to figure it out before Monday.”

For Clemson, the Tigers were led by a balanced scoring attack that included four double-digit scorers. Clemson’s leading scorer on the season, Aamir Simms, had a team-high 16 points while Al-Amir Dawes and John Newman each had 12 and Nick Honor netted 10.

Maryland will resume play when it opens up its Big Ten schedule Dec. 14 at Rutgers.