BC Stuns Maryland, Will Play Clemson

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BC Stuns Maryland, Will Play Clemson

By J. Mike Blake

Mar 14, 2008

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Boston College may have ruined any chance Maryland had of receiving a NCAA Tournament bid when it defeated the Terrapins 71-68 late Thursday night in the ACC Tournament’s opening round.

The Eagles had dropped 12 of its last 13 contests and sounded like a defeated team when they dropped their season final at home to Georgia Tech. However, behind the confident play of All-ACC performer Tyrese Rice, BC put together a furious second-half comeback for the upset.

“We knew this was a one-and-done, and what we’d done previously I think gathered us some experience, even in those losses and our guys just weren’t going to cave in,” coach Al Skinner said.

“This is a new season and this gives you an opportunity to recapture some of the luster that you’d lost throughout the year. It’s an opportunity, at least for us, to feel good about ourselves. We were really just fighting to feel good about ourselves, and so guys were going to continue to battle back.

Rice had a team-high 19 points in the game, all but two of them coming after halftime.

As his team forced turnover after turnover -21 in all - and chipped into what had been a double-digit lead, he pointed to his heart and stared into the stands, signifying the Eagles aren’t as demoralized as once believed.

“That’s what I’ve been telling our teammates this whole week, that’s what this whole tournament is about,” Rice said. “Everybody knows about everybody, everybody knows what everybody does well, it just comes down to who plays more aggressive and has more heart.”

Even Maryland coach Gary Williams admitted after the game that his team’s NCAA hopes were likely shot, and did say his team would play in the NIT if invited.

“We did some good things, but at the same time this really hurts right now. I thought we had battled ourselves back where we had a shot to get to the NCAA Tournament, which we wanted to do for the second straight year but we didn’t do it,” Williams said. “We just didn’t get it done today.”

With the win, the Eagles (14-16, 4-12 ACC) will move on to play Clemson (22-8, 10-6 ACC) in the quarterfinals Friday at 9:30 p.m.. In the team’s first and only meeting earlier this year on Feb. 2, the Tigers won in blowout fashion, 78-56.

“The biggest thing anytime you play Clemson is you have to take care of the basketball. If you take care of the basketball it takes away some of their transition baskets and so you have to concentrate on that,” Skinner said.

If the Eagles want to make it two upsets in just as many days, it might need a similar effort – getting 42 of its points from freshmen and 31 from its bench.

“It’s going to require a lot of hard work from everybody who steps up on the floor,” Skinner said.

Most Recent Comments

Guess no one should Fear the Turtle and maybe now Osby will get a haircut.

It really shouldn't be surprising. It's the norm for the Terps to take a perfectly good lead and throw it away! The second half looked like they'd never even seen a basketball before. I feel bad for Gist and Bam Bam, 2 seniors that play with as much heart as I've ever seen. The rest of them (Vasquez especially) should beg their forgiveness! Oh, and I am a Terp fan!