WRAL Sports Fan

College Basketball

Maryland downs Wake Forest, 75-64

By Guy Curtright

Mar 13, 2009

Atlanta — A return to the Georgia Dome has meant more than just emotional memories for Maryland coach Gary Williams.

It has revived the Terps’ season.

Maryland is heading to the ACC Tournament semifinals and with its upset of No. 8-ranked Wake Forest has also likely secured a bid to the NCAA Tournament.

Williams and the Terps won the NCAA title at the Georgia Dome in 2002 and the veteran coach teared up talking that team on Wednesday. Until the past two days, it looked like Maryland would miss March Madness for the fourth time in five seasons.

Not anymore. The Terps are 20-12 and playing nothing like a team that was 7-9 in the ACC regular season and sharing plenty of criticism along with its coach.

Maryland doomed Wake Forest (24-6) with a 12-2 run early in the second half, opening up a 17-point lead en route to a 75-64 victory Friday night.

Greivis Vasquez scored 22 points to lead the Terps, which had four players in double figures and held Wake Forest to a dismal 29.7 shooting percentage with its smothering zone.

“We’ve come a long way,” Vasquez said. “Now we want to win this tournament. It’s not for me to decide about the NCAA. But if we win the next two games, we don’t have to worry about that. We get in and we get a trophy, too.”

How quickly things have changed. It looked like Wake Forest might be the team playing on Sunday with a title at stake.

“This shows the toughness of this team,” said Eric Hayes, who had his second strong game off the bench with 11 points for the Terps. Some people were down on us and down on Coach.

“You could see this meant a lot to him. He talked to us about winning the NCAA Tournament here and how great things can happen when you believe. We believed. Now our eyes are set on winning the ACC championship. We’re not worried about the NCAA Tournament. We’re taking things one step at a time.”

Wake Forest, seeded No. 2 in the ACC Tournament, had hoped to claim a No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament and get to play close to home at Greensboro in the first round. But the Demon Deacons never got untracked against Maryland.

James Johnson drew his third foul before the game was 10 minutes old and Jeff Teague didn’t score in the first half, with Wake Forest fortunate to be down just 36-31 at intermission.

“We came out slow and we know that during this time of year we can’t do that,” Johnson said. “They came out wanting it more.”

Johnson finished with 20 points, along with 12 rebounds, and Teague scored 11. But they got little help in the second half as Maryland took charge.

“Nobody was really attacking until the second half,” Teague said.



The Terps, meanwhile, had 16 assists on 24 baskets and out-rebounded taller Wake Forest 44-40, with Landon Milbourne grabbed 11.

The Maryland zone certainly bothered the Deacons. “That is something we have to work on,” Johnson said. “. . . If our jumpers work, we can get teams to play us man to man.”

Maryland last made it past the ACC quarterfinals in 2004 – the year the Terps won the title after entering the tourney as the No. 6 seed. This year Maryland was seeded No. 7.

The Terps also faced Wake Forest in the quarterfinals that season, dispatching the No. 3-seed Demon Deacons before upsetting No. 2-seeded North Carolina State in the semifinals and top-seed Duke in the championship game.

With the expanded ACC, Maryland has already played twice this year, beating North Carolina State 74-69 on Thursday night in the first-round.

“We are a proud team and we have a great coach,” said Vasquez, who denied he has made a decision to declare for the NBA draft. “He’s the best. He’s a winner and so are we. You’ll see that again the next two days.”

“I like playing here,” Hayes said. “I wish we could play all our games in a dome.”