Terps Top Tigers In First Round ACC Action, 66-55

March 4, 2005

GREENSBORO, N.C. - Crystal Langhorne had 24 points and 16 rebounds to lead No. 25 Maryland past Clemson 66-55 in the first round of the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament Friday night.

Kalika France added 12 points for the sixth-seeded Terrapins (20-8), who advanced to face third-seeded North Carolina State in Saturday's quarterfinals.

Reggie Maddox scored 12 points to lead the 11th-seeded Tigers (8-20), who closed their worst season under 17th-year head coach Jim Davis.

Langhorne - who was named the ACC rookie of the year on Thursday - shot 10-for-18 from the floor.

Langhorne went 6-for-11 from the floor with nine rebounds in the first half. No other Maryland player scored more than four points, and the Terrapins shot just 39 percent, but their sluggish start hardly mattered against the woeful Tigers.

Clemson shot just 9-for-32 and had 15 turnovers, allowing Maryland to build a 32-20 halftime lead that was never seriously threatened after the break.

Davis is a two-time ACC coach of the year and is Clemson's winningest coach with 355 victories. He led the Tigers to the 1996 and 1999 ACC tournament titles, but his program had gone just 17-12, 14-15 and 17-12 in the past three seasons.

Things just got worse this year - and one sequence in the first half against Maryland seemed to sum it all up.

With the Terrapins leading 22-15, Charmaine Carr went to the line for a 1-and-1 opportunity. She missed the first, but Clemson was whistled for a lane violation to give Carr a second try. Carr made that one and missed the second, but the Tigers were again whistled for a lane violation.

And again, Carr made the do-over.

Things didn't get much better after that for Clemson. The Tigers managed to cut the deficit to below double-figures a handful of times, but Langhorne and the Terrapins always had an answer.

With Maryland holding a 50-41 lead, Langhorne got loose inside for a score off a feed from Ashleigh Newman with about eight minutes left. Then, after a 3-pointer from Shay Doron and a basket from France, Langhorne scored inside again to push the lead to 59-43 with 5:21 to play.

AARON BEARD AP Sports Writer

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