Terps 72, Lehigh 51

Coming off of a terrible stretch of two games in Kansas City to start the week, the Terps returned home to the Comcast Center to play a game the day after Thanksgiving as has become something of a tradition for the team. The opponent was Lehigh, a team that was neither big name power conference team like UCLA or a feisty mid-major like Northeastern.

The game had an odd feel to it thanks in no small part to the sparse holiday crowd. Absent from the lineup was Boom Osby who sat out with an illness. In his place, freshman center Braxton Dupree got his first collegiate start. Dupree responded with a breakout performance, scoring 14 points (including a team high 10 in the first half) to go with 5 boards. Dupree established position on the inside and looked much more comfortable with the ball in his hands, following up missed shots and going strong to the goal in order to draw fouls. The young center made a strong case for increased minutes in the future. In the upcoming nonconference games against the likes of Morgan State, Savannah State and Delaware, among others, Dupree should be receiving extensive minutes to gain experience that will benefit him in ACC play.

Maryland was up by only seven at halftime against the Mountain Hawks due largely to poor perimeter defense, but in the second half the Terps put the game away with stifling defense. Greivis Vasquez poured in 17 of his team-high 22 in the second half, the fifth time in six games he has led the Terps in scoring. Vasquez also showed improved decision making in turning the ball over just two times while passing up poor shots. In fact the entire team showed a committment to avoiding turnovers with just 12 in the entire game, a marked departure from the first five games of the season.

Jerome Burney was the first big man off the bench in his return from an eye injury that cost him the previous two games this week. Burney played his most extensive minutes of the season alongside fellow freshman Dino Gregory in what was a thin frontcourt without Osby and the still-injured Dave Neal and Shane Walker not seeing action until garbage time.

Cliff Tucker and Adrian Bowie also played extensive minutes in leiu of Landon Milbourne, combining for 8 points. Bowie in particular played a large role in shutting down Lehigh on defense in the opening portion of the second half that proved to be the difference in the game.

The team's next game will be at the Comcast Center this Wednesday against Illinois in the ACC-Big Ten challenge. That game, along with next Sunday's game against Virginia Commonwealth in the BB&T classic, may represent the Terps' last chance for a marquee out of conference win . For that reason the contest will take on added importance. Expect a breakdown of that game in the coming days. The team played perhaps their best overall game of the season, even allowing for the weaker competition, and showed some signs of busting out of the malaise of the past two weeks.