Feb. 6, 2003

Recap| Box Score| Notes

Maryland Head Coach Gary Williams
Opening statement:
"I thought Virginia was better prepared tonight in terms of their effort and energy. There is no reason to be tired; we looked like it. But Virginia had a lot to do with that. They played with a lot of emotion and passion tonight. Sometimes you go through difficulties and it brings a team a little closer together. I thought Virginia played inspired tonight. Going into the game, beside Billet, they hadn't been particularly effective from the 3-point line. We gave them some looks, they made them, and they got their confidence. I've seen that happen before. In the second half, we came out and got the ball inside, and then we gave up a couple wide-open looks from the 3-point line which they made. We couldn't score when we did get it inside after that. They were able to hold us to one shot on the offensive end of the court. They got the win. It's disappointing that we had that kind of defensive effort to give up 47 (points in the first half) when we had been playing really good defense. We got caught tonight not playing great defense. Virginia shot the ball very well and that combination really hurt us."

"This is one game. Just like one win, or one loss. There's no steps backwards. You just have to get ready for the next game."

Virginia Head Coach Pete Gillen
Opening statement:
"I'm very proud of our team. We beat an excellent basketball team in Maryland in a tough place to play. They are a great team, the fans are great. I'm most proud of the fact that we had a lead, and then Maryland went up by nine or 10, and our kids didn't wilt. It was nine or 10 and possibly going to 20. But our kids kept their poise, our defense improved, we hit some 3's. Devin Smith was great, we came back and got the lead. Everybody who played contributed. Travis [Watson] got some unbelievable rebounds in the second half. He made some great plays."

"It won't show up in the boxscore, but Todd Billet handled the ball well against their pressure, and Majestic [Mapp] came off the bench and I thought was great.

"It was a special victory; we beat a terrific team in a very tough place to play."

"We hit some big shots. Jermaine [Harper] came off the bench and hit big 3's; Devin [Smith] came off the bench. We just made shots; you've gotta make shots against Maryland. They are a tremendous offensive team. We tried to hold them down; I think we did a decent defensive job on them, but they're tough to play. I don't know how many 3's we hit for the game, but we felt we had to make about 10 3's to win this game."

On few turnovers in the second half:
"That was key, that was big. Majestic was in there at the end. He got a little tired, a little flustered a couple of times. They put great pressure on you. They have great depth, they play 10 guys that are all outstanding players. The crowd gets into it so sometimes you get a little out of sync. But I think we took care of the ball. That was a big thing. It was the second shots we thought they were getting that was hurting us, and our turnovers. We could have done a better job taking care of the ball and we wouldn't have got down nine or 10.

"We had poise; this is a tough venue. As they get the lead the crowd gets louder and you get out of sync. We just kept throwing guys in and out so when someone was out of sync someone came in and fortunately did a good job. It was just our night."