Terps win takes the Wake!

So apparently Gary Williams (who is indeed a baller) can only struggle against former Big East teams. His Terps beat a surging Wake Forest team on the road to run his team's record to 8-6 en route to handing the Deacons just their second home loss of the season, 74-70.

Greivis Vasquez and James Gist must play well for the Terps to beat any competitive opponents and tonight they did just that. Gist asserted himself from the beginning by hitting a number of jump shots in the first half including three triples in the game. He also manned the inside, taking a dozen foul shots and grabbing 11 boards to go along with a career high 31 points including the free throws down the stretch to seal the win.

Vasquez had his usual outstanding game with 24 points, 8 assists, and 4 boards plus just 4 turnovers on 9-15 shooting. The defining sequence for Vasquez saw him post up his miniature defender (Teague?) in order to score on three consecutive trips down the court.

The Terps led for the majority of the game, but that doesn't mean that tonight wasn't without some tense moments. After taking a 68-57 lead midway through the second half on an Eric Hayes' three, the team went ice cold. Cold enough that they went the final 9:10 without making a shot from the field. The Terps missed nine straight shots to finish the game, often settling for threes. BOOM was held scoreless while playing limited minutes due to illness, a big cause of the team's inability to get high percentage shots down the stretch.

The defense, along with torrid early shooting, played a huge part in winning the game. Wake shot just 37.9% from the field, similar to their earlier pathetic shooting performance against the Terps at Comcast Center. James Johnson, a freshman from Wyoming (they play ball there?), was incredible on his way to 25 points, but his only scoring help came from seven foot near-stiff Chas MacFarland.

The win moves the Terps back into a tie for fourth place with Virginia Tech. As it stands now the Hokies own the tiebreaker meaning that Maryland would face Virginia in the first round of the ACC Tournament. Next up is Clemson (8-5 ACC) on Sunday. It will be Senior Night for James and BOOM so expect the emotion to be there. Hopefully the execution will be as well.