ATLANTA --- The Maryland Terrapins may have closed the regular season playing some of their worst basketball in months, but that changed on Thursday afternoon.
The Terps used a 35-7 run spanning both halves to blow out Wake Forest 82-60 in the first round of the 59th ACC Tournament at Philips Arena.
Terrell Stoglin exploded in the second half and finished with 25 points. Nick Faust (19 points) was solid all day and the Terps simply crushed Wake’s will.
With the victory, Maryland improved to 17-14 and will take on top-seed North Carolina Friday at noon. Wake finished its season at 13-18.
Here are both teams’ grades for their performances on Thursday:
Wake offense: After a solid stretch in the first half, the Demon Deacons struggled getting good looks, in part because they ran a poor offense and appeared to lose a lot of steam during the course of Maryland’s decisive run that began in the first half and ended well into the second. Wake shot 40.7 percent overall and 27.8 from 3-point range. Grade: D.
Maryland offensive: Faust was very good in the first half, and Stoglin was great in the second. Maryland used their bigs’ movement to get good looks. The flow led to quality looks all over the place, plus Maryland’s open-court game was usually good. Terps shot 54.4 percent from the floor. Grade: A.
Wake defense: The Demon Deacons really didn’t play much defense. Once Maryland was into its run, the Deacons pretty much wilted, and the effort on this end of the floor was not great. Grade: F.
Maryland defense: The Terps kept the Deacons from getting a lot of quality looks over the final 27 minutes of the game. Wake got some open ones early but didn’t knock down enough. Wake made just 40.7 percent of its shot attempts, including just 27,8 percent from beyond the arc. Grade: B.
Wake intangibles: The Deacs came out ready to play but wilted quickly to close the first half. Their body language was awful and they had no spark in the second half. Grade: F.
Maryland intangibles: The Terps won the rebounding battle 39-24, blocked five shots, had eight steals and gave much greater and more consistent effort throughout the entire game. Grade: A.
