Maryland coach Gary Williams hopes his team learned it can?t take an opponent rom a minor conference lightly.
“We have to understand each night that we come out to play, you have to be ready to play and you have to play hard for 40 minutes,” Williams said. “You can?t think you have the game won or anything like that. Hopefully, we got that lesson [Monday night].”
Williams was referring to a 70-64 victory over lightly regarded Hampton, in which Maryland trailed by a point with 1:34 remaining before Greivis Vasquez made a three-pointer to give his team a lead it would not relinquish.
The Terrapins (2-0) have outscored their first two opponents ? Hampton andNorth Florida ? by just a combined 35 points, and will look to play a complete game against Northeastern (0-1) at Comcast Center tonight at 8.
Maryland, which is one of the Atlantic Coast Conference?s youngest teams, will be without its most experienced reserve after junior forward Dave Neal injured his left shoulder early during Monday?s game.
“When he went out was when we struggled,” Williams said. “Dave has been working hard. I?m very concerned because it looks like it?s around the same area he?s had the problems before.”
Senior forward James Gist also exited the game late in the first half with a cramp in his right leg, but is expected to play tonight.
“They started at about 18 minutes at the beginning of the second half,” Gist said. “I just tried to keep pushing and pushing. I just kept telling coach I wanted to get back in. I didn?t want to think about the cramps.”
The biggest key for Maryland against the Huskies will be to take care of the ball, as the Terrapins have a minus-3.5 turnover ratio and have committed 21 turnovers.
“We had guys wide open and we chose to make the hard pass or the one-handed pass,” Williams said. “Until we make the fundamental pass, there are going to be turnovers.”
TERPS (2-0) VS. NORTHEASTERN (0-1)
» Time: Tonight, 8
» Where: Comcast Center
» TV/RADIO: CSN, 105.7, 1300 AM
