Dec. 27, 2004
Liberty Game Notes in PDF Format
Download Free Acrobat Reader
COLLEGE PARK, Md. - The Maryland men's basketball team, which sits in a tie atop the ACC standings, looks to extend its current win streak to four games as the Terrapins take on the Liberty Flames of Lynchburg, Va., in a post-Christmas matchup on Tuesday. The Terps and Flames meet for the first time in history at 8 p.m. at Comcast Center. The game will be televised live on the Raycom/Jefferson Pilot Network, and can be seen locally on UPN-20 (WDCA) in Washington, D.C., and WB-54 (WNUV) in the Baltimore area. Mike Hogewood and Dan Bonner call the action.
The Terps' matchup with Liberty represents a meeting of last season's ACC and Big South Conference champions. The Flames posted a 12-4 league record (18-15 overall) to tie for the regular-season Big South title, and emerged victorious at the conference tournament to earn a No. 16 seed in the NCAA Tournament and a first round matchup with St. Joseph's. Though Tuesday's meeting marks the first in the history of both school's basketball programs, Maryland defeated a Big South opponent a little more than two weeks ago on Dec. 12. The Terps downed UNC Asheville, 96-72, to begin their current homestand and three-game win streak.
2004 ACC Tournament MVP John Gilchrist has scored at least 20 points in the last four games and currently leads five double-digit Terps in scoring (15.8 points per game), assists (7.0 apg) and steals (23) and is currently third on the team in rebounding (6.4 rpg). Sharpshooter and tenacious defender Chris McCray (14.0 ppg, .548 FG pct., .920 FT pct.) completes one of the nation's top backcourts, while versatile forward Nik Caner-Medley (14.0 ppg, 4.8 rpg) and powerful big man Travis Garrison (10.2 ppg, 6.3 rpg) pair up in the post.
Sophomore Ekene Ibekwe has assumed the Terps' fifth starting position, and has proven himself more than capable of handling his share of the inside duties. His average of 10.1 ppg makes him the fifth Terrapin averaging double-figures, and Ibekwe's 7.0 rebounds per game pace the squad and tie him for eighth among ACC players. His 1.8 rejections per game average leads the Terrapins as well, who rank second in the league in team blocked shots.
Last time out on Dec. 23, the Terrapins pulled away from a feisty American University squad with a strong second half performance and notched an 82-61 victory. Gilchrist reached the 20-point plateau for the fourth straight game, leading four Terps in double figures. Fifteen of his game-high 20 points came in the second half and he also contributed five assists, a benchmark he has hit in all nine games this season. Caner-Medley, Garrison (5-of-7 FG) and McCray also reached double-digits and although Ibekwe fell one point shy of that mark, his 13 rebounds (six offensive) were a career-high. Ibekwe also led the Terps with three steals, which ties a career-high. Maryland has registered four Terps in double-figures in six of nine games this season.
The Terps are 105-2 at home against non-conference foes since the Williams Era began in 1989-90, and have currently won 15-straight games at Comcast Center against non-ACC foes.
Terp Streaks & Storylines
As a team, the Terps rank among ACC leaders in several statistical categories: rebounding (42.7 rpg, 1st), assists (18.3, 2nd), scoring offense (85.8 ppg, 2nd), free throw shooting (.708, 3rd), 3-point field goal percentage defense (.294, 2nd), blocked shots (7.0 bpg, 2nd), field goal percentage defense (.392, 4th), steals (10.7 spg, 4th) and margin of victory (+15.8, 5th).
Maryland has made a significant improvement at the free throw line, ranking third in the 11-team ACC with a .708 mark from the line after finishing ninth (.631) in 2003-04. Junior Chris McCray is second in the league with a .920 (23-for-25) mark from the line. He was a perfect 18-for-18 through the Terps' first seven games of the season. As a team the Terps led the league for several weeks.
Terrapin head coach Gary Williams is 5-0 all-time against the current members of the Big South, with a victory over Radford (1988-89) at Ohio State and wins over UNCA (1997), Winthrop (1999), Coastal Carolina (2000) and UNC Asheville (2004) at Maryland. The Terps downed UNCA, 96-72, on Dec. 12 of this year.
Last March, head coach Gary Williams led his Terrapins to the 2004 ACC Tournament championship, giving Maryland its first ACC title since 1984. The Terrapins became one of only three teams in ACC Tournament history to knock off the top three seeds when they downed No. 3 Wake Forest (87-86), No. 2 NC State (85-82) and No. 1 Duke (95-87 (ot) en route to an automatic bid and No. 4 seed in the NCAA Tournament. The Terps reached the NCAA Second Round and finished the season with a 20-12 record.
Maryland continued a current school record with a berth in last season's NCAA Tournament. Williams returned to his alma mater in 1989 and has guided the Terrapins to 11 straight NCAA Tournaments since 1994, making the Terrapins one of only five teams in the nation riding a streak as long.
The young Terrapins of 2004 earned the ACC's automatic berth by winning Maryland's first conference tournament title in 20 years. Maryland was 14-11 (5-9 ACC) on Feb. 28 following a home loss to Wake Forest before reeling off five-straight victories. The Terps won the last two regular-season ACC games vs. Virginia and No. 16/19 NC State and posted the trio of ranked wins in the ACC tourney over the No. 15/14 Demon Deacons, the No. 17/20 Wolfpack and No. 5/4 Duke. In all, Maryland earned seven victories over the Top 25 in 2003-04 -- the most since its school-record national championship run in 2002 (9) -- and played the second-toughest schedule in the nation. The Terps extended a school record of consecutive 20-win seasons to eight (1996-97 to 2003-04), winning six of their last seven games in 2004, and five straight headed into the NCAA Tournament.
Williams owns a career record of 529-295 overall, making him the 14th-winningest active coach in America. He is 322-167 in his 16th season as the head coach at Maryland and only six coaches in college basketball history have captured as many victories as the leader of a program in the Atlantic Coast Conference. Williams totals 26 NCAA Tournament victories -- ranking ninth among active coaches -- and is 22-10 at Maryland for a .688 NCAA winning percentage.
As a sophomore, John Gilchrist was the first player to lead the Terps in scoring (15.4 ppg) and assists (5.0 apg) since Walt Williams in the 1990-91 season, and the first point guard to lead Maryland in both categories since John Lucas in the 1973-74 season. He leads the Terps in scoring, assists and steals this season and for a brief time in mid-December owned team-high rebounding numbers as well.
Gilchrist averaged 24.0 points per game, 5.3 rebounds and 6.3 assists through three ACC Tournament games to become Maryland's third-ever tourney MVP (Albert King, 1980; Len Bias, 1984). He shot at a .634 clip from the field and .643 from 3-point range, with incredible efforts against Wake (16 pts, 6 asst, 5 rebs), NC State (30 pts, 7 asst, 4 rebs, 4 stls, 1 TO) and Duke (26 pts, 7 rebs, 6 asst).
In August, the 2004 ACC Champs embarked on a 12-day, five-game summer tour of Italy. The Terrapins posted a 3-2 record, averaging 98.6 points per game and a margin of victory of +13.0 ppg, downing a pair of professional Italian teams and posting a landslide victory over world-famous Kiev (Russia). The Terps visited Rome, Florence, Venice and Lake Como, exploring influential centers of culture and art while getting the chance to bond as a team.
On Deck
The Terps return to action after the New Year on Jan. 4, when they play host to Mount St. Mary's in a game that will be televised on Comcast SportsNet at 8 p.m.
