Jan. 11, 2005

Box Score

By JENNA FRYER
AP Sports Writer

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (AP) - Justin Gray continued his torrid shooting streak, scoring 25 points while making a season-high six 3-pointers to lead No. 4 Wake Forest to an 81-66 victory over Maryland on Tuesday night.

Gray, who had 31 points in Saturday's win at Clemson, made his first four 3s of the game while pushing the Demon Deacons (14-1, 3-0 Atlantic Coast Conference) to an early lead. The junior is playing the best basketball of his career, with 55 points and 11 3-pointers in the past two games.

Chris Paul finished with 14 points, Eric Williams had 12 points and 10 rebounds, Jamaal Levy had 11 points and Vytas Danelius finished with 10 rebounds for Wake Forest.

Maryland (9-4, 1-2) played poorly in its second-straight lopsided loss. The Terrapins were coming off a 36-point loss at No. 3 North Carolina, and started the game with leading scorer John Gilchrist on the bench for missing an academic assignment.

Gilchrist hardly played, sitting for almost the entire second half and finishing with two points on 1-of-2 shooting. Nik Caner-Medley led the Terrapins with 18 points.

The Deacons played as if the game was nothing more than a tuneup for Saturday's meeting with North Carolina. They opened up firing behind Gray, and coach Skip Prosser refused to allow them to back off.

Even when they took a huge lead into halftime, he screamed "Run!" at the Deacons as they filed off the court to the locker room.

Prosser kept the intensity all through the second half, standing up in disgust after Levy missed a 3 and Mike Jones quickly converted for Maryland with a 3-pointer that cut Wake Forest's lead to 69-55. Prosser ordered the Deacons to pick it up, and Gray responded with his sixth 3-pointer.

Gray scored 16 points in a stretch of 5:05 of the first half, hitting four 3-pointers. Every time he let the ball go, it seemed sure to hit for the second straight game. It was a similar stretch to Saturday, when Gray scored 15 points in 3 minutes flat.

Although the Deacons played well in the first half, the Terps' poor play was the reason Wake Forest rolled to a 47-26 halftime lead.

Maryland was awful in every area during the first half, failing to set plays or look for shots. Maryland shot just 37 percent in the first half, missed all seven of its 3-point attempts and struggled at the line on 2-of-8 free throw shooting.

The Terps also had eight turnovers that Wake Forest converted into 14 points, including a high-flying alley-oop dunk by Strickland following a steal by Paul.

Maryland took a timeout after Strickland's dunk, only to see him slam it in again on assist from Paul as Wake Forest came out of the break. Paul then continued to pile it on Maryland with two pretty baskets, darting through the defense on each one.

The start of the second half was no better as Wake Forest came racing out. The Terps opened the half with a turnover, Danelius made a basket, and after a Maryland miss, Gray hit his fifth 3-pointer for a 52-26 lead 44 seconds into the second half.