Dec. 23, 2003

Recap| Box Score| Notes| Photo Gallery

Maryland Head Coach Gary Williams
Opening statement:
"This is the game coming out of exams that coaches worry about the most. I was really proud of our guys overall, especially their defensive effort. We weren't playing well offensively for a while, which allowed UNC-Greensboro to hang around. But when we did finally get going offensively, our defense was good enough to create a separation."

On his team's individual performances:
"Travis Garrison came back in the second half and played some of his best basketball. Ekene Ibekwe certainly helped us, when Jamar and Will got into foul trouble. Especially in the second half, Ekene was very active. He had his hands on a lot of balls and ended up with six rebounds. That was really good to see."

"Nik Caner-Medley was big tonight. He made some big shots taking the ball to the basket, which we were preaching the last couple of days. Against these guys, we wanted to take the ball to the basket and see if they could block it, and Nik did a really good job."

On the team's defensive effort:
"Tonight, I was really pleased. Chris McCray did a very good defensive job on Jay Joseph, who is a great shooter. When you make a mistake on him, he really makes you pay."

On the team's development:
"We are getting better, and it will be good to practice now. We will hopefully have good practices leading up to Florida State and see what we can do down there."

On the Terps' ACC opener against Florida State:
"They quietly have become one of the more experienced teams in the league. I believe they start four seniors and that is a big advantage. Hopefully, we will continue to play hard and play the way we have been playing."

On getting reserves into the game:
"When you get a lead, you try to get more playing time for the bench. There are going to be games when they don't get much playing time, but you have to have those guys ready for when we start playing two games a week. Hopefully, this helped them tonight."

On the crowd:
"With the students gone, you know the crowd is not going to be as energized, and you also know your players are distracted with exams. I had to remind them why they were here. Greensboro, with what they did Sunday against Missouri, certainly got my attention and I didn't want to be in that situation."

Maryland Forward Nik Caner-Medley
On the team's pre-holiday performance:
"I feel like we gave the fans a good Christmas present. Right now, I'm thinking about spending a day with my family to celebrate the holiday and then getting ready for Florida State."

Sophomore Forward Travis Garrison
On his double-digit performance:
"It felt great. I think I'm getting back into the groove now. I'm trying to work hard in practice and get in the rhythm of everything and shoot the ball more. That kind of showed tonight, but I just have to keep improving."

"I just go out there and whatever comes [to me] comes. The most important [things] for me are rebounding, putbacks, shooting the open jumper and burying it. I have to do things like that to help contribute to the team."

Freshman forward Ekene Ibekwe
On his career-high point total:
"It's just one of those things where you play hard. Coach [Williams] gave me the opportunity to come in and play hard. He knows I can play, so I just have to do what I have to do on the offensive and defensive ends."

On turning turnovers into points:
"Defense provides the offense. Steals lead to passes and layups. It always starts with good defense and that's a part of my game."

Junior forward Darien Henry
On his last-minute field goal:
"Mike [Grinnon] passed the ball a couple times at the end and luckily one of the shots went down and it felt good to make the shot."

UNC Greensboro Head Coach Fran McCaffery
On his team's performance:
"Obviously we didn't get off to a great start, but we fought back and were in striking distance at half time. Then at 17:09 they went on a 17-2 run. So that is clearly where we fell apart. We talked a lot about this game and about how this team really thrived on the run. There were going to be runs- we knew that. We could handle a 6-0 run, just not a 15-2 or 17-2 point run. You just cannot get them at that point. We put pressure on them and they scored in transition, which they are so good at. Our shot selection against Maryland is what is important and we really worked a lot on that. We had good shot selection for probably 32 minutes of the game, but it was that one six minute stretch that killed us."

On playing on the road at Maryland:
"I think [traveling] has taken a toll on our team, but on the other hand if you don't get revved up to play in this environment you better check your pulse. What a great building, where you are playing against a team that won the national championship two years ago. There was a great crowd- they were really into the game which we weren't sure about since there was a holiday. So obviously I would have liked to see us play a little harder collectively.

UNC Greensboro guard Jay Joseph
On the pace of the game:
"Maryland is a physical team. We kept up with them in the first half, but it wore us down in the second half. We weren't getting back on defense and jus weren't physical enough. We had a lot of breakdowns. We should have corrected things for the second half. We weren't getting loose and couldn't get to the basket. We should have gotten the ball on the floor a bit more."

On Chris McCray's defense:
"He (McCray) was in my face all night. I couldn't get a clean shot. He's physical, with long arms and had a hand in my face all night. I couldn't break free. We passed the ball well, but I just couldn't get a good shot."