Feb. 17, 2010

Final Stats

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) - For the second straight year, Greivis Vasquez brought the ball upcourt against a beaten North Carolina State team as the final seconds ticked away in the RBC Center. Only this time - instead of burying a rub-it-in 3-pointer - he simply dribbled out the clock.

Besides, Vasquez and his Maryland teammates had long since made their point: They own the Wolfpack.

Vasquez scored 17 of his 26 points in the second half to help the Terrapins rally from a 10-point halftime deficit to beat N.C. State 67-58 on Wednesday night for their seventh straight victory in the series.

Freshman Jordan Williams matched his season-high of 19 points to go with 11 rebounds for the Terrapins (18-7, 8-3 Atlantic Coast Conference), who pushed ahead for good midway through the second half and shot 56 percent after the break. The win allowed Maryland to move into a second-place tie with Virginia Tech in the ACC standings just behind league-leading Duke.

The Terrapins are in the midst of playing four games in eight days. They lost big at Duke on Saturday, then returned home Monday to beat Virginia in a game postponed by snow before coming back to North Carolina to face the Wolfpack (14-13, 2-10).

The stretch ends at home against Georgia Tech on Saturday.

"We are resilient," Maryland coach Gary Williams said. "To lose like we did at Duke, then come back (against Virginia) and win and then travel 12 hours later is tough. But you have to accept that the schedule's not going to be the way you'd like it to be."

Perhaps that taxing stretch was partly to blame for the sluggish way Maryland started the game, shooting 33 percent and falling behind 37-27 at the break. But it held the Wolfpack to just one field goal in the final 9:53, including a 6-minute scoreless stretch as the Terrapins pushed into the lead.

"We did a great job in the second half coming out and playing hard as a team," Vasquez said. "I thought we were ready to play. No excuses. We had a tough week, but there are no excuses for us, and we got the win."

Dennis Horner had 19 points and 10 rebounds to lead the Wolfpack, who have lost five straight games to fall into the ACC basement. N.C. State shot just 7-for-30 (23 percent) in the second half, including 1-for-14 after Horner scored on a stickback followed by a 3-pointer for a 51-45 lead with 9:53 to play.

N.C. State has lost seven straight ACC games since its upset of Duke on Jan. 20.

"I'm not sure where their pulse is," said fourth-year Wolfpack coach Sidney Lowe, who has yet to beat Maryland. "I know they were definitely disappointed in there. One guy looked like he was going to cry and a couple of guys had their heads down. I expect that. But the question is what are you going to do about it?"

Vasquez has had his way with the Wolfpack, most notably with a 33-point performance last March in which he taunted home fans late in the game, then buried that meaningless 3-pointer at the horn. He didn't offer quite so many antics this time, though there were some glares and even a few words to the home crowd.

He buried the go-ahead 3 to make it 53-51 with 8:16 left, which was the biggest basket in a game-turning 22-5 run that helped the Terrapins rally from a 46-36 deficit with about 15 minutes left.

"We wanted to get the momentum up," said Adrian Bowie, who had two 3s in the decisive run. "The momentum was a little slow in the first half. We just wanted to press them at all times and make them tired. Once they got tired, they couldn't make shots."

Horner ended the 6-minute scoreless skid with a pair of free throws at 3:48, but the Wolfpack's field-goal drought continued. Meanwhile, Vasquez was just getting going, scoring seven straight points and pushing Maryland's lead to 65-55 with 1:59 left.

"He's smart," N.C. State's Tracy Smith said. "He put his team on his back and he made the right decisions out there."

Julius Mays hit a 3-pointer with about a minute left for the Wolfpack's first field goal since the Horner baskets, but the game had long since slipped away.

Smith finished with just 10 points and got only eight shots on the night for N.C. State, which played without freshman forward Richard Howell. Howell sat out with a left thumb injury suffered in practice.