After a half of play against Connecticut, Maryland is still very much in the game, but they could be considered lucky to do so. Sloppy play and poor decision making doomed the Terps throughout the period, and they trail 48-36 at halftime.
UConn led 11-5 at the first break of play, but Evan Smotrycz was able to stop a 7-0 Connecticut run with a three-pointer. After UConn made a pair of field throws, Smotrycz and Nick Faust made back-to-back threes to cut the lead to 16-14.
Charles Mitchell struggled early in the first half, with two turnovers on his first two touches and two fouls in about two minutes to play. He came in with under five minutes to play in the period, and had a key offensive rebound and putback to bring Maryland within five.
Dez Wells also had troubles at the point guard position, giving the ball away through both poor dribbling and flat passes. He had four turnovers in the first half, and you can bet that Mark Turgeon will want to install Roddy Peters at the position as soon as possible.
Faust had his share of poor decisions as well, taking contested three after contested three. After one such foolish decision (which brought him to one-of-four on the day), Turgeon subbed former walk-on Varun Ram in for the shooting guard. Faust later came in and hit his next three point attempt, but finished the half three of ten from the floor -- taking by far the most shots on the team.
Evan Smotrycz was able to stretch the floor, scoring ten points and making both of this three point attempts. Connecticut was able to contain Jake Layman, who was one for four on the half.
UConn went on a 7-0 run near the end of the half, opening up the lead to a game-high 12 points.