Maryland held the lead for all but five minutes against UCLA on Friday night, but it wasn’t until midway through the second half when head coach Kevin Willard watched his team gain separation. And UCLA head coach Mick Cronin getting ejected played a big reason why.
After the two teams traded scoring spurts in the opening minutes of the second half, one of Julian Reese’s seven made shots extended the Terps’ lead to nine one minute before he snatched the rebound off a missed one-and-one attempt thanks to Ja’Kobi Gillespie prying the ball out of William Kyle’s hands. That led to an animated Cronin on the sideline before finding out he was on a short leash from the officiating crew.
“In defense of my guys, I didn't think we were given any chance to win in the second half," Cronin said after the game. “I let [official] Jeff Anderson know, I hit the showers.”
The double technical sent Ja'Kobi Gillespie to the line where he added four of his career-high 27 points in the win, part of an 8-0 run that gave Maryland a double-digit lead for good. Maryland stretched its lead to as many as 24 points in the closing minutes of the game to end a two-game slide in the first ranked win of the season.
“I don't remember the last time I had a technical," he said. "I had enough. I'm sending a message. I'm tired of it. I know we're the outsider and all that — us, SC and Oregon — but that was ridiculous. And take nothing away from Maryland, a really good team at home, but you got to defend my players. If you can just mug guys and chop their arms off, throw them out of the way, it's hard to run any offense.”
Despite Cronin’s complaints, Maryland and UCLA were both called for ten personal fouls in the second half and 19 on the night.
“You’ve got to give us a chance. You’re not giving us a chance to win. You’ve got to give us a chance to win,” he added, adding “I know there was” when asked whether there were officiating discrepancies between the two teams over the final 20 minutes.
“Second half, the game got to a point where nothing was being called and we weren’t tough enough. That being said, in defense of my players, I don’t think we were having much of a chance. We were getting grabbed, thrown, chopped, whatever – it’s hard.”
Cronin didn’t point all the fingers at the officials, though. Days after repeatedly calling his team “soft”, Cronin noted his team’s regression on defense while pointing to the 21 turnovers as a hurdle to steep to climb. Friday marked the second time that UCLA has finished with 20 or more turnovers in a game, though the Terps have forced opponents into 20 or more turnovers now in six games this season including twice in the last month.
“We just turned the ball over. You got no chance [when you] turn the ball over the way we did tonight,” Cronin said.
Still, Cronin noted he “wanted out…to send a message, [that] I’m tired of it” as Maryland has now defeated UCLA in consecutive years with no regular-season rematch scheduled this season.
“I have to defend my players and if you can just mug guys and chop their arms off, throw them out of the way, it’s hard to run any offense.”
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