Jan. 23, 2005

Recap |  Box Score |  Quotes

• The Maryland basketball team fell to the North Carolina State Wolfpack 85-69 Sunday night in the final game of a three-game homestand. The Terps dropped to 11-5 overall and 2-3 in the conference. The win was just NC State's second in its last 16 tries against the Terps in College Park. It was the schools' first meeting since Maryland overcame a 21-point deficit to stun the Wolfpack in last year's ACC Tournament semifinal. The Terps dropped their first home game of the year after reeling off nine in a row to start the season.
• Head Coach Gary Williams remained tied with former Virginia coach Terry Holland for fifth place among the Atlantic Coast Conference's all-time winningest coaches. The second-longest tenured coach in the conference, Williams has 326 wins at his alma mater. Williams is currently tied for fourth place on the ACC wins list with 134. Former Georgia Tech coach Bobby Cremins, who guided the Yellow Jackets from 1982-2000, also owns 134 conference victories.
• The Wolfpack came out firing, attempting nine of its first 13 field goals from beyond the arc, and connecting on four. Freshman Gavin Grant hit both of his three-point tries, and Engin Atsur and Julius Hodge each made one.
• After falling behind by 26 at 39-13 with 5:41 remaining in the first half, the Terps went on an 8-0 run to shorten the gap. Point guard John Gilchrist nailed a pair of three-pointers and forward Travis Garrison converted two free throws to make the score 39-21 with 4:33 to go.
• With 10 points a piece, Atsur and Ilian Evtimov were the leading scorers at the break for NC State, which owned a 26-point halftime advantage. The Wolfpack were 18-of-33 from the floor in the first half, including 10-of-18 on threes. Gilchrist was Maryland's leading scorer at halftime with eight points.
• The Terps closed to 61-51 with 9:00 left when Nik Caner-Medley grabbed a McCray miss off the glass and hit a pair of free throws after being fouled. After being held scoreless in the first half, Caner-Medley came alive in the second, scoring 15 points on 5-for-6 shooting. He also had 10 rebounds for the game, including seven in the second half. It was his third career double-double and first since Florida State Dec. 28 2003. It also marked the fourth straight game that Caner-Medley led the Terps in scoring, and seventh overall this season.
• Junior Chris McCray scored 11 points, including 2-for-5 on three-pointers. It was his second consecutive double-figure scoring game while nursing a painful tailbone injury.
• Maryland shot 52 percent from the field in the second half. On the opposite end of the floor, the Terp defense held NC State to just 40 percent shooting over the final half. After hitting 56 percent of their three pointers in the first half, the Wolfpack made only 2-of-8 from beyond the arc in the second.
• Four Terps reached double-figures in the scoring column. Caner-Medley lead the way with 15, followed by Gilchrist (13) and McCray and Garrison, who each dropped in 11.