Maryland faces No. 6 Michigan State in Old Spice Classic on Thursday
Junior guard Eric Hayes doesn’t know what sparked a decisive, 17-0 run to begin overtime in his team’s victory over Vermont, but he hopes that’s the way the Terrapins play the rest of the season.
“You get on a role like that, we were scoring, playing great defense, rebounding, getting the ball back and scoring again,” he said of the 89-74 win over the Catamounts. “It’s fun when you’re playing that way.”
Maryland will need to produce the same dominating performance for 40 minutes if it’s to make its trip to Disney World memorable. The Terrapins (3-0) face sixth-ranked Michigan State (2-0) on Thanksgiving night at 7 p.m. on ESPN2 in the first round of the Old Spice Classic. The winner advances to face 10th-ranked Gonzaga (2-0) or Oklahoma State (4-0) on Friday. The losers play earlier in the day.
The Terrapins head to the Sunshine State brimming with confidence. Maryland rallied from a five-point deficit with fewer than two minutes to play by combining Greivis Vasquez’s three pointer with six seconds remaining with a stellar performance in overtime to cruise to an 89-74 victory.
“I think in any good season, there is a win like that along the line,” Maryland coach Gary Williams said. “When it seems like there’s no chance to win and you win, it’s a good feeling because it cements the idea that if you work hard enough, good things happen.”
But not last year. The Terrapins entered their major regular season tournament — the CBE Classic — coming off a 74-72 overtime victory over Northeastern. Maryland, however, couldn’t maintain the momentum, as they were beaten by UCLA and Missouri by an average of 13 points.
But Williams is confident his team learned from last year.
“We know we can win a game like that,” Williams said. “And that’s big this time of year.”
Maryland’s trip to Florida opens a stretch in which it returns home to face Michigan (3-1) in the Big 10/ACC Challenge at Comcast Center before heading to Verizon Center to face George Washington (2-1).
But it’s still November, and Maryland’s toughest games commence when Atlantic Coast Conference play begins on Jan. 10.
“I’m having fun,” Vasquez said. “But it’s too early in the season to get too excited.”
