WRAL Sports Fan

North Carolina

Contributions from bench not enough in State's loss to Maryland

By Guy Curtright

Mar 13, 2009

Wake Forest is hoping to use the ACC Tournament to secure a No. 2 seed for the NCAA Tournament.

Maryland is just trying to make it back to the big spring fling after missing out three of the past four seasons.

The Terps won the NCAA championship in their last trip to the Georgia Dome in 2002. But coach Gary Williams hasn’t enjoyed much postseason success anywhere since.

Maybe this is the year that changes.

“We want to show what this team is capable of,” Dave Neal, the Terps’ lone senior said.

Maryland (19-12) kept alive its NCAA hopes Thursday night with a 74-69 victory over North Carolina State. The Terps need one more victory, though, and No. 8-ranked Wake Forest (24-5) is up next at 7 p.m. Friday in the ACC quarterfinals.

Wake Forest and Maryland played on March 3 in College Park, with the Demon Deacons winning 65-62. The Terps need to do more than just keep the score close this time.

“They went to a 1-3-1 zone and it hurt us,” said Neal, who scored 19 points in that game against the Demon Deacons. “But we’ve put in some new zone plays since. If they try that again, I think things will be different.”

Maryland certainly showed that it could drain shots from outside against N.C. State, going 9-for-16 from behind the 3-point arc. Eric Hayes was 5-for-6 en route to a game-high 21 points and Neal, who scored 10, was 2-for-2.

N.C. State (16-14) jumped to a 21-8 lead, but Maryland then went on a 20-4 run sparked by Hayes’ three consecutive 3-pointers and the teams traded the lead until the final 3 minutes.

"I'm not sure we would have ever recovered from the way that game started if Hayes doesn't come in the game," Williams said.

Hayes hit his fifth 3-pointer to put Maryland ahead for good at 63-62 and then Greivis Vasquez, who had 17 points, connected on a trey of his own. The Terps pulled away at the foul line to complete a 12-0 run.

“We came in her knowing we needed two wins,” Neal said. “If we can get by Wake Forest, I don’t see why we can’t get two more after that. I don’t want my ACC run to end.”

While Maryland was taking a step to salvaging its postseason hopes, it was just more disappointment for N.C. State.

The Wolfpack made a miracle ACC run as a 10th seed in 2007, reaching the championship game before losing to North Carolina in Sidney Lowe’s first season as coach. But there was to be no magic this time.

N.C. State came in having split its final 10 regular-season games and had extra incentive against Maryland. The Wolfpack was angry that Vasquez had shot a meaningless 3-pointer at the end of a victory on March 1 in which he scored 33 points.

“I personally was pretty pissed off about it and felt kind of disrespected,” Costner said Wednesday. “I’m sure that a couple of us thought about running over there and knocking him down. But it wasn’t worth it.”

Instead, N.C. State hoped to get another kind of payback. It didn’t happen.

Costner, who had a N.C. State record 90 points during the 2007 tourney, got in early foul trouble and finished with just five points this time. He was 1-for-5 from behind the 3-point arc and the Wolfpack were 8-for-27 as a team.

Julius Mays, getting playing time with Farnold Degand disciplined, had 18 points and Dennis Horner 11 off the bench. But the only N.C. State starter in double figures was senior Ben McCauley with 14.

“It’s a lot of disappointment,” McCauley said of how he was feeling afterward. “I thought we could come in a play much better than we did.”

“We missed several defensive assignments and they made us pay,” Lowe said.

Hayes, a junior averaging 9.4 points per game, didn’t start for Maryland, but he certainly made a major impact.

“Once I knocked that first one down, I felt pretty good about my shot for the night,” said Hayes.

“If he stays that hot the rest of the tournament, look out,” Neal said. “Not Wake Forest or anyone else will want to zone us.”

“We’re playing for Sunday,” Vasquez added. “We’re on a mission. We knew if we won this game we were going to have a chance to play Wake Forest. We’re happy, but we’re not satisfied.”