Dec. 29, 1996
Terrapins Move Into Championship Game of Rainbow Classic With Win Over Hawaii
HONOLULU, Hawaii - Keith Booth scored 25 points as 21st-ranked Maryland advanced to
the championship game of the Rainbow Classic with a 76-59
victory over host Hawaii in Honolulu.
Terrell Stokes added 14 points and Laron Profit had 10 points
and seven rebounds for Maryland, which is off to an 11-0 start
for the first time since 1975-76. The Terrapins play Georgia in
the title game on Monday. Hawaii meets Memphis in the
consolation game.
Hawaii took an 9-4 lead in the first 3:32 minutes but Maryland
went on an 11-2 run that gave the Terps a lead they would not
relinquish. Profit had four points and Booth capped the spurt
with a three-point play with 12:06 remaining in the half.
The Rainbows closed within 28-24 when Michael Robinson hit a
layup and a five-foot jumper with 7:20 to go. After a Maryland
timeout, Stokes made a 16-foot jumper and a three-pointer to put
the Terps up 33-24 with 2:34 before the intermission. Maryland
went into halftime with a 37-28 lead.
"I felt Hawaii was on the verge if they could just get one or
two more shots down at certain points during the game," Maryland
head coach Gary Williams said. "The run would be there for
Hawaii but it really never happened because our bench was able
to give us energy each time they came into the game."
Eric Ambrozich scored five points in a 9-5 spurt that allowed
Hawaii to pull within 42-37 with 15:42 left. But the Terps
scored the next seven points to reclaim a 12-point lead with
14:04 to go. Maryland closed the game by going 8-for-12 from
the free-throw line.
"We had a little run in the second half, but other than that we
weren't running our offense too well," said Alika Smith, who had
14 points for the Rainbows. "We got out of it a lot of times and
we just had to break it down. We can't do that against a team
like this. We just have to execute."
Anthony Carter had 16 points and six assists for Hawaii (7-2),
which had its three-game winning streak stopped.
"Maryland had a lot of good athletes who are much quicker than
we are and took us out of our offense," said Hawaii head coach
Riley Wallace. "We're not quick on foot so we have to be quick
with the ball and they took away a lot of our passing lanes and
we could't move the ball like we have. They forced Carter to be
the shooter instead of the orchestrator and the penetrator that
he is. They changed Alika's shots with the 6-foot-6 (Profit)
guarding him. It's a good learning experience."
Maryland shot a blistering 60 percent (28-for-47) from the field
but made just 2-of-8 from three-point range. The Terps
converted 18-of-26 free throws. The Rainbows were 23-for-57
from the field (40 percent), making 5-of-19 from long range.
MARYLAND (76)
fg ft rb
min m-a m-a o-t a pf tp
Booth 37 9-15 7-11 0-4 2 2 25
Profit 36 4-9 2-4 2-7 1 1 10
Stokes 33 3-7 7-8 0-1 5 4 14
Jasikevicius 22 1-2 2-2 0-2 1 3 4
Ekezie 30 3-4 0-0 3-9 0 3 6
Hite 1 0-0 0-0 0-1 0 0 0
Kovarik 6 1-1 0-0 0-0 1 0 2
Elliott 25 4-6 0-1 2-6 3 3 9
Watkins 10 3-3 0-0 0-1 0 2 6
_______________________________________________
TOTALS 200 28-47 18-26 7-31 13 18 76
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Percentages: FG-.596, FT-.692. 3-Point Goals:
2-8, .250 (Booth 0-1, Profit 0-2, Stokes 1-4,
Elliott 1-1). Team rebounds: 2. Blocked shots: 1
(Profit). Turnovers: 14 (Booth 3, Ekezie 3,
Jasikevicius 2, Profit 2, Elliott, Kovarik,
Stokes). Steals: 9 (Ekezie 3, Kovarik 3, Booth,
Jasikevicius, Profit).
HAWAII (59)
fg ft rb
min m-a m-a o-t a pf tp
Kroger 40 2-8 0-2 2-5 4 4 5
Smith 37 5-13 1-1 0-1 3 4 14
Carter 39 6-18 3-5 1-1 6 4 16
Ambrozich 21 3-7 1-2 3-6 0 1 7
Sundberg 37 5-7 0-1 3-10 1 4 10
Curry 4 0-0 2-2 0-0 0 2 2
Robinson 19 2-4 1-2 1-2 0 1 5
Furlong 3 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 1 0
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TOTALS 200 23-57 8-15 10-25 14 21 59
_______________________________________________
Percentages: FG-.404, FT-.533. 3-Point Goals:
5-19, .263 (Kroger 1-4, Smith 3-9, Carter 1-6).
Team rebounds: 2. Blocked shots: None. Turnovers:
14 (Kroger 4, Smith 4, Carter 2, Curry 2,
Ambrozich, Robinson). Steals: 8 (Carter 2, Kroger
2, Ambrozich, Robinson, Smith, Sundberg).
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Maryland 37 39 - 76
Hawaii 28 31 - 59
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Technical fouls: None. A: 9,367. Officials: John
Clougherty, Bobby Hunt, Donnie Harrison.
