Jan. 6, 2004

Recap| Box Score| Notes

Maryland Head Coach Gary Williams
Opening Statement:
"The first half UMES did a great job of controlling the tempo. They made us impatient on offense. It wasn't easy. They were very well prepared to play us. They did a good job with their spread offense. It bothered us. We went up 19-4 and we think it's going to be easy. They changed their game plan and executed the way they had to. "

On the team's second-half performance:
"In the second half, the pressure got us playing harder and we did some better things offensively. We made more than one pass in our half court offense."

On the play of freshman guard Mike Jones:
"Of course, Mike Jones had a big game. I like to see him go to the free throw line because he is a good free throw shooter. It shows that he is aggressive. We have tried to get him to be aggressive. I think he gets more open shots when he takes the ball to the basket."

On the conclusion of Maryland's non-conference schedule:
"All that is over now, so we can prepare to play really good teams. We have a chance to play eight to 10 nationally ranked teams in the next 15 games."

Maryland Guard Mike Jones
On the second half:
"I felt a lot more comfortable in the second half. We weren't playing as well as we should have and we talked about it at half time so I wanted to step up and make a difference."

On his development as a Terp:
"Coach told me my time would come. He said to stay patient and positive and that's what I've been doing so far this season, as well as practicing hard."

On his role in the game tonight:
"I just wanted to focus on the defensive end. DJ [Strawberry] brings lot of energy for the team to the defensive end. With DJ not playing, I wanted to help bring that energy."

Maryland Forward Ekene Ibekwe
On his first career start as a Terp:
"Whatever five [players] coach puts on the floor is going to be the best five for the team. Whether I start or come off the bench, it doesn't matter. I just want to come in and do my part to try to make as much of an impact as possible."

On the upcoming game vs UNC:
"We're pretty ready. We need to work on a couple of things. I am ready as an individual and we're ready as a team."

Maryland Forward Nik Caner-Medley
On the state of the team:
"If we were to assess where we need to improve, what we need is to get everyone involved offensively. We have a lot of talent and we need to get to the point where we utilize everyone's talents."

On the breakout game by Mike Jones:
"Mike has been playing well in practice. We'll need him to keep it up as we start to face some tougher competition."

University of Maryland Eastern Shore Coach Thomas Trotter
Opening Comment:
"If you look at our shooting percentage, our two little guards, Aaron [Wellington] and [Tee] Trotter, they averaged about 36 points a night last year. Right now, no matter who we play, they're not making their shots. They really look cold. I think Maryland really struggled getting around all those screens we were setting. But they just said, 'OK, we're going to let you shoot it and let you start hitting them,' and we didn't hit them. And then, after awhile, when you're a young team, you don't see the ball going in and your defense falters. About five times in a row we went down, and some guys were in man and some were in zone. The zone bothered them, I thought, early."

On being down 11 at halftime:
"We were very encouraged because one of the things we thought was if we could duplicate the first half and keep the game in the 60's, they wouldn't be too comfortable with a score in the 60's. We wanted to keep it around 10 points with about 10 minutes to go and get the crowd on them a little bit. That's what you've got to do when you play a team like this."