Sunday, November 27, 2016

Maryland Wins Barclays Center Classic In a Thriller; Richmond 3rd

Maryland fans went into a frenzy after Melo Trimble's game-winning basket late. Photo by Jason Schott.

Maryland won the Barclays Center Classic on Saturday night, as they outlasted Kansas State in a thriller, 69-68, while Richmond came back to beat Boston College 67-54 in the Consolation Game.
Maryland 69, Kansas State 68
Maryland led this highly competitive championship game 35-29 at halftime, and found themselves down a point, 68-67, in the final seconds.
That was when Melo Trimble, who scored 31 points against Richmond Friday night, was ready to answer the call.

Trimble  drove down the lane past Kansas State forward D.J. Johnson for the basket with 6.6 seconds left.
What made this possible was that Kansas State's Wesley Iwandu missed the front end of a 1-and-1 with 14 seconds left. After Maryland called timeout, they got to the ball to Trimble, who went around a screen by Damonte Dodd that prevented Iwandu from providing a double team.
Trimble said of the play after the game, "Just don't settle. I've been in that situation since I've been at Maryland. I just know the best decision when the game's going like that is to just go to the basket."
Maryland Head Coach Mark Turgeon said of the play that accounted for the game-winning basket, "We drew it up in the timeout. Everybody ran it to perfection. The only thing that was different was I thought we might be throwing it in off an inbounds instead of off a miss. When I saw Damonte (Dodd) set the perfect screen and perfect timing, I just knew (Trimble) was going to do what he does."
Kansas State Head Coach Bruce Weber said of the play, "We knew what was coming. He just gets a head of steam. He gets his body into you and draws fouls, makes plays. He's good at it."
There was a foul on the play, but Trimble missed the resulting free throw, so Kansas State still had a chance to win it. Barry Brown got a good look at a jumper from the left side, but it fell short.
The largely Maryland crowd went into a frenzy, as did Trimble, who celebrated with his teammates and raced over to the first row and gave high-fives to Maryland fans.
"I was happy we won. I didn't know what to do. I just was just happy to see so many people over there from Maryland," said Trimble.
Trimble led Maryland with 18 points on 6-11 from the field, including 1-3 on three-pointers, two rebounds, and an assist. The one negative on his night was that he committed five turnovers.
Michal Cekovsky had 16 points off the bench, on 7-11 shooting, with eight rebounds and an assist.
Turgeon said of Cekovsky, who recently returned from an injury, "He;s not even close to where he was before he got hurt. He was hurt for about 10 weeks, but he's got fresh legs now."
Justin Jackson had 11 points on 3-7 from the field, 2-3 on threes, four rebounds, four blocks, and an assist.
For Kansas State, D.J. Johnson led the way with 27 points on 10-18 shooting, with eight rebounds, two steals, a block, and an assist. Wesley Iwundu had 16 points (6-12 FG, 1-2 threes), 11 rebounds, and three assists. Barry Brown had 13 points (6-14 FG, 0-3 threes), a rebound, and an assist. Kamau Stokes had 11 points (4-9 FG, 3-5 threes) and three assists.
Maryland improved to 6-0 on the season, while Kansas State fell to 6-1.
Richmond 67, Boston College 54
Richmond overcame a 33-25 halftime deficit with an explosive second half in which they outscored Boston College 42-21 to run away with the 67-54 victory.
Richmond shot 58 percent, 15-26, in the second half, while B.C. shot just 27 percent, or 8-30.
T.J. Cline had 14 of his team-high 23 points in the second half, and shot 10-17 overall, 1-3 on threes, with 10 rebounds and an assist.
ShawnDre' Jones had 17 points (5-12 FG, 1-6 threes), including 11 in the second half, with two assists and a rebound. Julius Johnson got 10 of his 12 points in the second half, and shot 5-6 overall, including a three, with six rebounds and two assists.
Richmond Head Coach Chris Mooney said of the win, "I'm really proud of how we played. Last night, I thought we played a great game against a great team (referring to Maryland). Today we had a good shoot around and good energy. Tonight in the second half I thought we were as good as we can be and played as well as we can play. I'm really pleased about that."
Mooney said of T.J. Cline's performance, "Once we got the lead tonight I thought we could really get the ball into TJ and feature him. Once we did that I thought it was very effective. He's just incredible. He's one of the better players in the country. He's so capable of doing so many things. He can score inside, he can score outside, but he can also get other guys shots when he's inside or when he's outside. He's just a terrific all-around player."
Boston College was led by Jerome Robinson with 27 points on 10-20 from the field, an impressive 6-9 on threes, three rebounds, and an assist. A.J. Turner had 10 points (4-12 shooting, 1-6 threes), seven rebounds, and two assists.
Boston College Head Coach Jim Christian said of concerns with his team's offense, "I'm concerned with the possessions. The whole goal for us tonight was to play right. We didn't play right last night and didn't move the ball. We moved the ball tonight. We got open shots. I'm concerned we're not making them, but the shots we took today were so much better than yesterday in terms of how we played the game. We have to get some guys more confident and they have to make shots. We took really good shots tonight. We just didn't make them. I'm concerned about it because guys haven't been making shots."

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