University of North Florida
Maryland
Terps snap Ospreys in opener
11/11/2007 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
UNF solid early, but falters late in 79-50 loss
Nov. 11, 2007
COLLEGE PARK, Md. - The University of North Florida men's basketball team took an inexperienced team with plenty of question marks into its season opener against ACC powerhouse Maryland on Monday night. The Ospreys showed some spunk but didn't find many answers in a 79-50 loss in the opening round of the O'Reilly Auto Parts CBE Classic.
Junior Tom Hammonds and freshman Justin Cecil each scored 14 points in their first UNF games, helping the Ospreys keep it close for the first 20 minutes. UNF trailed just 30-23 at halftime but couldn't overrcome a rash of turnovers and torrid second-half shooting by Maryland in losing before a sizable crowd at the 18,000-seat Comcast Center.
Maryland -- despite playing without a pair of suspended starters -- overcame a sloppy first half in which they committed 14 turnovers. Ther Terps shot 65 percent in the second half, however, and 54 percent for the game in improving to 126-3 under head coach Gary Williams in non-conference home games. Greivis Vasquez led the Terrapins with 18 points, while Bambale Osby and Eric Hayes each added 15 points.
"For the most part I was proud of our younger players and how they played tonight," UNF head coach Matt Kilcullen said. "We had a really good stretch in the first half and made some strong plays to get ourselves back into the game. After that came back out and turned the ball over on our first two possessions of the second half and really put ourselves in a hole. I liked our effort, but our execution was lacking. We just didn't handle the ball well against Maryland's pressure, and you can't do that against a talented, well-coached team."
Both teams committed 20 turnovers, but Maryland was able to convert UNF's miscues into 31 points while the Ospreys managed to generate only 14 points off Maryland mistakes. UNF shot 31 percent for the game and 27 percent from 3-point range (6-of- 22). The Terps won the rebounding battle, 43-26.
UNF started off well enough, with Cecil and Hammonds each draining 3-pointers and Chris Timberlake hitting a jumper to push the Ospreys out to a 7-4 lead. From there, things went south -- with UNF going scoreless for the next eight minutes and Maryland putting together an 11-0 run during that stretch to push out to a lead it would never relinquish.
The Ospreys sliced a 23-11 deficit to just 26-21 with three minutes to play before halftime thanks to seven points from reserve guard Brent Wood but still trailed by seven at the intermission.
In the second half, Maryland outscored the Ospreys 27-11 over the first 10 minutes to put the game out of reach.
The Ospreys will face Tulsa in a consolation game on Monday night at 6 p.m. The game will be carried in Jacksonville on WBOB-AM 1320, with airtime for the UNF pregame show set for 5:45 p.m.
