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Maryland will use ‘tag team’ defense to slow down Virginia Tech’s Erick Green

Iowa Virginia Tech Basketball

Virginia Tech’s Erick Green, right, goes around Iowa’s Mike Gesell, left, into the lane during an NCAA college basketball game in Blackburg, Va., Tuesday Nov. 27, 2012. (AP Photo/The Roanoke Times, Daniel Lin).

AP

Since falling to Kentucky on opening night in Brooklyn, Maryland has rallied off 12 consecutive wins heading into conference play. However the best wins of those dozens were a 20-point blowout against Northwestern and a single-digit win against a pretty good Stony Brook team.

The Terrapins will have a chance to go for lucky No. 13 on Saturday, but they’ll have to do it against the nation’s second-leading scorer, Erick Green and Virginia Tech.

While the Terrapins are looking to add another ‘W’ in the win column and try break the top-25, the Hokies are in much need of a victory following a pair of blowout losses to Colorado State and BYU to close out 2012. Green, averaging 24.4 points per game will look to bounce back against a team he has had success against following a loss to BYU where he scored a season-low 12 points off a dismal 4-of-17 shooting.

To make sure the dynamic scorer doesn’t go off, Maryland will hit him with a tag team defensive effort, according to Don Markus of the Baltimore Sun.

This tag team defense, is part of Maryland’s man-to-man defensive set, as the Terps make sure a particular player, in this case Green, is covered wherever he goes on the floor.

“We don’t play just one-on-one defense, we play team defense and we’re responsible to our man and the man next to us,” sophomore swingman Dez Wells told the Sun. “We’re doing whatever we have to do to help guard our man and the man near us.”

“I think he’s going to get his points, we just want him to earn them,” added Maryland coach Mark Turgeon.

This could be another long day for the 6-foot-3 Green. The Terrapins will look to throw size at him with 6-foot-6 Nick Faust and the 6-foot-5 Wells.

Terrence is also the lead writer at NEHoopNews.com and can be followed on Twitter: @terrence_payne