Dec. 23, 2003

Recap| Box Score| Quotes| Photo Gallery

* The Maryland basketball team (No. 24 Associated Press/ No. 25 USA Today/ESPN) returned to action after a nine-day respite for final exams and defeated UNC Greensboro 85-58 in a pre-Christmas tilt Tuesday night at Comcast Center, improving to 7-2 on the 2003-04 season. Since dropping two games at the BB&T Classic, the Terrapins have ripped off three straight wins, including a 69-68 overtime win on Dec. 10 against then-No. 1 Florida. UNC Greensboro falls to 4-6 with the loss.

* It was only the second ever meeting between the Terrapins and Spartans with Maryland scoring an 84-55 victory on Feb. 25, 1992 at Cole Field House.

* Maryland Head Coach Gary Williams reached another milestone with Tuesday's victory, picking up his 100th home win against a non-conference opponent. During his 15-year span with the Terps, Williams has lost only twice to a non-Atlantic Coast Conference foe. Since Dec. 30, 1989, the Terrapins own a 96-1 home record against non-conference opponents.

* Four Terrapins had double-digit performances and two others nearly reached the plateau, one of the team's most balanced efforts on the young season. Nik Caner-Medley paced the Maryland squad with 19 points on 8-of-15 shooting, 5 rebounds and 4 assists. Chris McCray and Travis Garrison pitched in 11 and 10 points, respectively. John Gilchrist fell just short of a double-double, scoring 9 points and adding 8 assists.

* Freshman forward Ekene Ibekwe turned in his most complete performance as a Terrapin, scoring a career-high 13 points, going 6-of-9 from the field and collecting 6 rebounds - four on the offensive end. He also buried his first career three-point field goal with 7:52 remaining in the second half.

* Maryland found an early scoring touch, connecting on 7 of their first 11 attempts from the field in the game's opening seven minutes. However, the Spartans kept it close thanks in part to 8 early points from forward Ronnie Burrell.

* The Terrapins would finish the first half shooting at an impressive 55 percent clip (17-of-31) to take a 42-32 halftime lead. Caner-Medley led the Terps with 10 points at the break while Jamar Smith tallied 6 points and 7 rebounds and Gilchrist added 7 points and a team-high 4 assists.

* With UNCG holding an 11-10 lead, Maryland went on a 19-6 spurt to build a double-digit lead midway through the first half, capped when McCray stuffed Jay Joseph's three-point attempt and raced the other way for an easy lay-in to give the Terps a 29-17 edge. Caner-Medley would score 8 of his 10 first-half points in the run. Maryland built their largest lead on a Garrison jumper from the top of the key with 5:18 remaining in the half.

* After the Spartans drew within eight points early in the second half, Maryland reeled off 17 of the next 19 points to notch its largest lead to that point at 63-40 and take control of the game for good. The Terps forced several turnovers in the streak, including the final two which sparked slam dunks by Ibekwe and D.J. Strawberry. McCray scored 6 points in the run on a traditional three-point play and a long-range bomb.

* Maryland continued to shoot well in the second half, going 18-of-34 from the field to finish 35-of-65 (.538) for the game, its second best shooting performance of the season. They forced 14 Spartan turnovers - 10 of which were steals -to gain an edge in points off turnovers (24-9) and fast break points (26-10).

* All 12 Terrapins saw action in Tuesday's game, the third time this season that every player received playing time. Nine Terps got in the scoring column.