Feb. 16, 2005

Box Score

By AARON BEARD
AP Sports Writer

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) - Ilian Evtimov and Tony Bethel each scored 17 points Wednesday night to lift North Carolina State to an 82-63 victory over No. 22 Maryland.

Julius Hodge added 13 points and nine assists for the Wolfpack (15-10, 5-7 Atlantic Coast Conference), who led by 20 points in the first half. The win gives N.C. State its first regular-season sweep of the Terrapins (15-8, 6-6) since the 1988-89 season.

Maryland was coming off a 99-92 overtime win against No. 7 Duke, giving the Terps their first sweep of the Blue Devils in a decade. But the Terps failed to maintain that momentum, losing to a team in desperate need of its own big win.

N.C. State played unselfishly on offense, choosing crisp passing over 1-on-1 basketball to get open shots. The Wolfpack hit 13 3-pointers - many coming on kickouts from the post or off penetration - and finished with 22 assists on 25 field goals.

The Wolfpack started the season 10-1, then lost nine of 12 games to jeopardize their pursuit of a fourth straight NCAA tournament bid. But with this win and three of its final four games at home - though two are against No. 4 North Carolina and No. 5 Wake Forest - N.C. State is at least in position to make a run at correcting a season gone awry.

Nik Caner-Medley scored 19 points to lead the Terps, but he got little help. John Gilchrist, who finished an assist shy of a triple-double against the Blue Devils, had seven points on 1-for-6 shooting.

Maryland led 20-19 on Caner-Medley's 3-pointer from the right wing, but the Wolfpack answered with a 25-4 run to take its big lead. N.C. State got hot from the outside, hitting five 3s over the next 5 minutes.

Hodge assisted on two of those long-distance shots from Bethel and one from Evtimov, and found Cedric Simmons alone for a slam inside.

Little went right for the Terps during the run. They went scoreless for 5 minutes, couldn't stop the Wolfpack's shooters and coach Gary Williams was called for a technical foul with his team trailing by 15.

Engin Atsur closed the run with a 3 off a feed from Andrew Brackman inside, pushing the lead to 44-24 with 6:15 left before the break.

Caner-Medley scored 17 points in the half on 7-for-9 shooting, but the rest of the Terps shot just 5-for-20 and trailed 48-34 at halftime.

Maryland got as close as 63-56 midway through the second half, but the Wolfpack scored eight straight points. Hodge found Atsur alone on a cut to the basket for a layup, and Evtimov assisted on 3s from Bethel and Jordan Collins for a 71-56 lead with 3:39 to play.

It was the third straight game in which N.C. State built a 20-point lead on the Terrapins. Maryland erased a 21-point deficit to win in an ACC tournament semifinal last season, and the Wolfpack led by as many as 28 points in an 85-69 road win last month.