Feb. 22, 2005

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COLLEGE PARK, Md. (AP) - Sharrod Ford had 24 points, 10 rebounds and a career-high nine blocks, leading Clemson past Maryland 97-93 Tuesday night.

Shawan Robinson added 17 points for the Tigers (13-13, 3-10 Atlantic Coast Conference), who recorded their first regular-season series sweep over the Terrapins since 1996-97. Clemson, which had dropped eight of 10 games, made 8-of-12 3-pointers.

Maryland (16-9, 7-7), which had beaten Clemson 13 straight times before this season, got 23 points from Nik Caner-Medley and 21 from Chris McCray.

But the Terrapins struggled to defend Ford, who scored 17 second-half points and almost single-handedly defused a Maryland rally.

The Terrapins whittled a 10-point halftime deficit down to four points after Caner-Medley converted his own miss with 13:48 left in regulation.

But Ford responded with a pair of free throws to restore the six-point cushion. Caner-Medley's one-handed baseline runner was matched by a Ford layup, then Maryland's Ekene Ibekwe scored on a drive through the lane only to have Ford retaliate with a tip-in over Caner-Medley on the other end.

Caner-Medley's 3-pointer from the right corner cut the lead to 64-61, but Ford scored again 12 seconds later on a layup.

Maryland got within 89-85 on a pair of Travis Garrison free throws with 1:44 left in the game, but couldn't engineer a comeback.

Clemson scored 16 points off 11 Terrapin turnovers en route to a 49-39 halftime lead.

The Tigers opened the game on a 16-4 run, frustrating Maryland so much and so quickly that Terrapins coach Gary Williams yanked his starting five off the floor just 2:19 into the game.

The starters returned 2:25 later, but the Clemson onslaught continued. Cheyenne Moore's 3-pointer from the left corner put the Tigers up 21-6 with 12:57 remaining in the half.

McCray converted an alley-oop feed from Caner-Medley, getting Maryland within 32-24 6:56 before intermission. Maryland twice cut the deficit to five points, the last time on McCray's basket with 3:15 left in the half.

But Robinson responded with a left-side 3 for a 43-25 lead.