North Carolina State University Athletics
NC State
Maryland
N.C. State Tripped By No. 3 Terrapins, 89-73
2/3/2002 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Feb 3, 2002
By Tony Haynes
College Park, MD--NC State's last visit to historic Cole Field House turned into anything but a fond farewell. However, the Wolfpack was more than happy to say good-bye after losing for the 13th straight time in a facility that has been home to Maryland basketball since 1955.
On Sunday, All-America guard Juan Dixon scored 27 points and third ranked Maryland broke open a close game by going on a 16-2 spurt midway through the second half to post an 89-73 win over the Pack.
With the victory, Maryland (18-3, 8-1) moved into a first place tie with Duke in the ACC standings. The loss was NC State's second in a row and dropped the Pack to 16-6 overall and 5-4 in the ACC. The defeat also snapped the Wolfpack's five game road winning streak.
Trailing 41-38 at the break, NC State put together a nice little run early in the second half to draw even with the Terps. And when Archie Miller got a breakaway layup at the 11:18 mark, the Wolfpack was up 56-55. Seconds later, Cliff Crawford hit one of two free throws to put the Pack ahead by two. But that's when Maryland took over.
The Terps regained the lead at 58-57 on a Byron Mouton (13 points) stick back with 9:17 remaining. That offensive rebound was a sign of things to come, as Maryland would dominate the boards down the stretch. The Terrapins owned a 34-23 rebounding advantage for the game, which included 14 offensive boards that were turned into 15-second chance points.
Another putback, this one by Ryan Randle, made it a three-point game. Then Dixon got rolling. His three-pointer from the left-hand corner with 7:37 gave Maryland a 63-57 advantage. Following a short jumper by Mouton and a dunk inside by Randle, Dixon struck again, this time from the top of the key put the Terps up 70-59 with 5:46 remaining.
Meanwhile, the frustration started to build on the NC State sideline, where head coach Herb Sendek was whistled for a technical foul for protesting what he thought should have been a foul called on a missed shot inside by freshman center Josh Powell. Later, with just 45 seconds remaining, Pack freshman Julius Hodge received a technical after picking up his fifth foul.
During Maryland's decisive run, the Wolfpack went more than six minutes without a field goal. Turnovers were also a big problem for NC State. Averaging a league best 12.8 coming in, the Pack turned the ball over 21 times on Sunday. That, combined with Maryland's big rebounding advantage was simply too much to overcome.
"You've got to finish the game," said NC State head coach Herb Sendek. "It's not a 30-minute game. Even in the last 10 minutes, we still had an opportunity to comeback and win the game, but we turned the ball over far too much. And we still do not stop people to the degree that we need to in order to win a game like this on the road."
Over the last 10 minutes, Maryland outscored NC State 34-18. Dixon, who may push Duke's Jason Williams for ACC Player of the Year honors, was usually in the middle of the action on both ends of the floor. To go along with his 27 points, the silky smooth senior from Baltimore had three assists, four steals and five rebounds.
"Juan Dixon is a great player," Sendek said. "He makes shots that are guarded and he is sensational. I can't say enough good things about him."
In the first half, the Wolfpack got off to a great start, jumping out to an 18-9 lead behind the scoring of seniors Anthony Grundy and Archie Miller. Grundy scored 13 of his 19 points in the opening half, while Miller (11 points) drained three long bombs in the opening 20 minutes.
Maryland finally got going by calling on a fullcourt man-to-man press that caused all kinds of problems for the Pack. In most cases, NC State had a difficult time just inbounding the ball, as the Terps face-guarded would be receivers out on the floor. After turning the ball over only once in the first 10 minutes, NC State had 11 in the final 10 minutes of the half. Freshman forward Ilian Evtimov, who in many cases was assigned with getting the ball inbounds, was charged with six of those turnovers. Not only did the miscues get the crowd back in the game, they also allowed Maryland to turn an early nine-point deficit into a 41-38 lead at the half.
"It was hard out there today," said Maryland coach Gary Williams. "State's a good team, they're definitely an NCAA Tournament caliber team. I certainly expected a very difficult game. I thought our guys gradually got it to the point where we had enough energy to play a team that does have a lot of energy and isn't afraid to use it on the court. Once we matched their intensity level, we were ok."
Although he was saddled with three fouls in the first half, Terrapins center Lonny Baxter finished with 16 points to back the scoring of Dixon. Mouton (13) and point guard Steve Blake (12) also reached double figures for Maryland.
For the game, NC State hit 50 percent of its shots (25-50) and was 14-of-17 from the free throw line. Maryland also hit better than half of its shots (28-55), and had a significant edge at the free throw line, where it converted on 26-of-36 attempts.
