Dec. 9, 2000

Box Score

By ROB MAADDI
AP Sports Writer

PHILADELPHIA - Byron Mouton is making the most of his starting job.

Mouton, inserted into the lineup a week earlier, scored 19 of his 20 points in the first half as No. 19 Maryland beat Penn 87-81 on Saturday night.

Maryland (5-3) has won four straight - each with Mouton starting - after getting off to its worst start in 32 years. Penn (0-6) is off to its worst start in 16 years.

Juan Dixon had 23 points and Terence Morris added 12 points for Maryland.

Lamar Plummer scored 23 points, Ugonna Onyekwe had 20 and Geoff Owens added 14 for Penn.

Mouton had 12 points during a 21-1 run midway through the first half as Maryland broke open a close game. Steve Blake scored 10 straight points late in the second half as the Terrapins held off a strong rally.

"I felt I couldn't miss a shot," Mouton said. "I felt so pumped. Some nights you feel good, and you know you're not going to miss."

But Mouton stopped shooting in the second half, and Penn fought back.

Plummer, who finished 7-of-11 from 3-point range, hit five 3-pointers in the second half to lead Penn back from a 24-point deficit.

Plummer made two consecutive 3-pointers, including one on an alley-oop pass attempt to cut it to 64-50. He nailed another 3-pointer to cap a 10-2 run that made it 69-60, and hit a long-range 3-pointer to cut it to 75-69 with 4:24 left.

"It was a pass to Koko (Archibong), and it went into the hole. That's Palestra magic right there," Plummer said about the alley-oop.

Blake answered Plummer's shots with a 3-pointer and a long jumper - his first points of the game - to give Maryland an 80-69 lead. After a layup by Onyekwe, Blake hit another jumper to make it 82-71 with 1:58 left.

Penn didn't get any closer than nine the rest of the way until Dave Kratsky's 3-pointer at the buzzer.

"I wasn't hitting shots like I liked too," Blake said. "It was just instinct. I saw the shots, and kept taking them."

After a layup by Owens gave Penn a 12-9 lead, Dixon hit a pair of free throws to make it 12-11. Then Mouton took over.

He scored on a putback and made a free throw to complete a three-point play, made a layup and hit a free throw for another three-point play and nailed a 3-pointer to give Maryland a 20-12 lead 6:22 into the game.

Onyekwe then hit a free throw for Penn, and Maryland scored 10 straight, capped by another 3-pointer from Mouton to make it 30-13.

"Mouton was incredible in the first half, but we didn't get him the ball in the second half. I'm not sure why," Maryland coach Gary Williams said.

Mouton missed his only shot of the second half after hitting 6-of-8 in the first half.

Penn hadn't lost six straight to open the year since losing seven at the start of the 1984-85 season. Penn went on to win the Ivy League title and play in the NCAA tournament that season.

It doesn't get easier for the Quakers. Penn plays No. 7 Seton Hall on Wednesday, breaks for the holidays and returns to action against Temple on Dec. 29.

"We rushed to much, we needed to control the tempo a little more and we had no answer for Mouton," Penn coach Fran Dunphy said.

Maryland has won two straight against Penn after losing 22 in a row to the Quakers. Maryland defeated Penn 26-21 on Feb. 9, 1927, to become the first team to beat the Quakers at The Palestra.

"We wanted to jump on them right away. It worked out well in the first half," Williams said. "That's about as good as we can play. I guess we decided we had played well enough. We haven't learned how to be killers yet. When you get a team down by 20, you should try to make it 40."