Feb. 15, 2005
NC State Game Notes in PDF Format
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COLLEGE PARK, Md. -
The Maryland basketball team (15-7, 6-5 ACC) looks to build on the momentum of its two-game win streak and avenge a Jan. 23 home loss when the Terrapins travel south to Raleigh, N.C., to tangle with NC State (14-10, 4-7 ACC). The Terps look to win a fifth-consecutive matchup with the Wolfpack at NC State's RBC Arena on Wednesday at 9 p.m. The game will be televised on the Raycom/Jefferson Pilot Network; UPN-20 (WDCA) in Washington, D.C., and WB-54 (WNUV) in the Baltimore area. Former Maryland football linebacker Tim Brant (Journalism `73) and broadcasting legend Billy Packer call the action as the Terps make their last stop of the year on Tobacco Road.
The Terrapins -- who have been named ESPN.com's team of the week -- earned a hard-fought, overtime victory over Duke on Saturday (99-92) to complete their first season sweep of the Blue Devils since 1994-95 and remain in fourth place in the ACC standings. Before a raucous sell-out crowd and following a weekend's worth of hype on national television, ACC Player of the Week John Gilchrist (19 pts, 10 rebs, 9 assts) led six Terps in double-figures by nearly posting the first Maryland triple-double since 1987. Gilchrist's gaudy numbers represented his second-straight double-double, and the fourth of his career, after scoring 19 and dishing a career-high 10 assists in the Terps' victory over Virginia Tech on Tuesday, Feb. 8. Junior forward Travis Garrison recorded his second-career double-double with 17 points and 11 rebounds, to which he added four blocked shots. Chris McCray -- who is currently tied for the lead as the NCAA's and ACC's top free-throw shooter (.932) -- out-dueled Duke's J.J. Redick with a perfect 10-for-10 performance from the charity stripe and finished with 17 points, five rebounds and five assists. Sophomore sharpshooter Mike Jones lifted the Terps with his own personal 8-0 run in the second half and totaled 15 points and five boards. Nik Caner-Medley tallied 11 points with nine rebounds, while Ekene Ibekwe played through the pain of a cracked rib and keyed a strong Terrapin finish, scoring 11 points with five rebounds and two rejections in only 17 minutes. Maryland outrebounded Duke 50-41 and held the Blue Devils to 39.7 percent shooting.
The Terrapins are currently the No. 24 team in the latest RPI report, with the sixth-strongest schedule in the nation. Maryland owns the toughest-rated schedule among all ACC teams and is the fourth-ranked team in the league according to the report. The Terps have notched four victories over the Top 45 RPI teams, including Maryland's Jan. 19 home win over Virginia (No. 45), its Jan. 26 and Feb. 12 wins over Duke (No. 6) and its Jan. 30 victory over Georgia Tech (No. 41). Only one of the Terps' losses have come to a team outside the RPI Top 100 (Clemson, No. 105, Feb. 1).
The Wolfpack improved to 14-10 on the season (4-7 ACC) after posting a 53-51 victory at Georgia Tech on Sunday. Senior Julius Hodge, who leads the Pack in scoring (18.0 ppg) and rebounding (7.2 rpg), posted a 15-point, 10-board double-double in the victory. Hodge, the only NC State player averaging double-figures on the year, scored 20 with 11 boards in an 85-69 win over the Terps in College Park on Jan. 23. The Terrapins trail, 70-67, in the all-time series that dates to 1925, but the Terps have won 25 of the last 31 matchups since 1992.
>Terp Streaks & Storylines
The Maryland-NC State matchup features the second and third-longest tenured head coaches in the ACC. Terrapin head coach Gary Williams -- who received his second national coach of the week honor from ESPN's Dick Vitale after leading the Terps to victories over Virginia Tech and No. 7/8 Duke -- is the conference's second-active winningest head man with an overall record of 537-300 and a 330-172 record as Maryland's head coach. Williams is in fifth place outright on the ACC's all-time wins list, is ranked fourth all-time in victories over ACC league teams (138) and is one of only two mentors currently in the league that have captured the NCAA title. Herb Sendek has posted 162 victories as NC State's head coach since the 1996-97 season.
Under Williams, Maryland has defeated 61 Top 25 teams, including No. 25/24 Memphis (Nov. 26, 84-61), No. 2/2 Duke (Jan. 26, 75-66), No. 22/21 Georgia Tech (Jan. 30, 79-71) and No. 7/8 Duke (Feb. 12, 99-92 OT) this season. The Terps have downed 24 Top 10 opponents, 15 Top 5 foes and the No. 1 team in the nation five times under Maryland's mentor. Williams has led the Terps to victory over the No. 3, No. 2 or No. 1 team in the nation in each of the last six seasons.
Terrapin junior guard Chris McCray has been one of the most consistent Terrapins over the course of the season, always charged with guarding the opponent's best perimeter player while remaining among the ACC's Top 25 scorers all year long. In the last four games, McCray is averaging 17.5 points , 4.3 assists, 3.5 rebounds and 1.3 steals. He has fired at a 42 percent clip from the field and has made 42 percent of his 3-pointers as well across that stretch, all while sinking 96 percent of his free throws. McCray is currently tied for the national and ACC lead in free throw shooting, hitting at a 93.2 percent rate (69-of-74).
Terrapin junior forward Nik Caner-Medley, named ESPN.com's National Player of the Week by Andy Katz after the wins over Duke and Georgia Tech two weeks ago, leads the Terps in scoring at 16.5 ppg. He is averaging 19.0 ppg across the last 10 contests, shooting .470 from the field while grabbing 7.1 rebounds per game, dishing 2.2 assists and making 1.4 steals. Caner-Medley has led the Terps in scoring 10 times this season, and has registered more than 20 points in eight games this season, including five of the past nine contests. Caner-Medley posted a double-double of 15 points and 10 boards vs. NC State on Jan. 23.
Junior point guard John Gilchrist is averaging 19.0 points, 7.5 rebounds and 9.5 assists over the last two games, including a 19-point, 10-assist double-double against Virginia Tech and a 19-point, 10-rebound, nine-assist performance against Duke. Gilchrist's career-high 10 assists against the Hokies helped him become the first Terp to post a double-double in scoring and assists since Steve Blake in 2003, while his near triple-double against the Blue Devils would have made him the first Maryland player since Derrick Lewis in 1987 (Feb. 17 vs. UMBC; 32 pts, 10 rebs, 10 blks) to accomplish that feat. Gilchrist currently ranks second in the ACC in assist-to-turnover ratio (2.1) and third in assists (5.7 apg).
Sophomore D.J. Strawberry, who was listed among the ACC's steals leaders, will miss the remainder of the basketball season with a torn anterior cruciate ligament (ACL). Smooth-shooting sophomore guard Mike Jones and junior combo-guard Sterling Ledbetter have stepped up in his place. Jones scored 15 points with five rebounds in only 18 minutes against Duke (Feb. 12), at one point staging his own personal 8-0 scoring run. Jones is averaging 9.0 ppg across the last 10 games, and his 14.0 ppg average in the last three contests includes a 71.4 shooting performance from the field and a 50 percent success rate from beyond the arc. Ledbetter has proven to be solid at the point or two-guard positions, scoring a career-high 10 points against Clemson (Feb. 1), and averaging nearly 15 minutes in the last four contests.
At 83.0 points per game, the Terps own one of the most potent scoring offenses in the nation. The Terps are ranked third in the ACC in scoring offense, behind only UNC (90.6 ppg) and Wake (86.2 ppg). As of Feb. 7, the Terps were eighth in all of NCAA Division I.
Maryland has made a significant improvement at the free throw line, ranking third in the 11-team ACC with a .723 mark from the line after finishing ninth (.631) in 2003-04. McCray is tied for first in the nation and in the league (with Duke's J.J. Redick ) with a .932 (69-of-74) mark from the line.
On Deck
The Terrapins travel to Charlottesville for a matchup with ACC border-rival Virginia on Saturday, Feb. 19 at 3:30 p.m. The game will be nationally televised on CBS.
