When North Carolina State made its 10th three-pointer of the first half last night, Maryland's Ekene Ibekwe, while sitting on the bench, slammed the white towel he was holding to the floor in a symbolic gesture.
While Maryland players had not surrendered, their lack of intensity in the first half had all but guaranteed defeat. The Wolfpack built a 27-point first-half lead and held off a late Maryland rally en route to a decisive 85-69 victory before 17,950 at Comcast Center.
Maryland's Ekene Ibekwe loses the ball as he is defended by North Carolina State's Ilian Evtimov.
(Nick Wass - AP)
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The loss marked Maryland's third blowout defeat this month. The first two, though, were against schools that at the time were ranked in the top five, North Carolina and Wake Forest. N.C. State (12-6, 2-3) had lost five of its past six games and was playing without its second-leading scorer, Cameron Bennerman, who was sidelined with an elbow injury.
"I'm concerned, obviously," Maryland Coach Gary Williams said.
"I thought that was a winnable game. We're playing at home. State's had some tough times. We didn't show up ready to attack a good team."
Williams took responsibility for the loss, saying he didn't get the Terrapins (11-5, 2-3) properly ready to play. He added that players were "standing around" in the first half and did not demonstrate intensity on defense, which in turn carried over to offense. Players fumbled passes out of bounds and were beaten to loose balls.
It was a first half that rivaled the Terps' performance against North Carolina two weeks ago. On offense, Maryland made only two baskets in almost 15 minutes of the half. On defense, Maryland's press was porous and a shift to zone midway through proved ineffective, as players allowed numerous open outside shots.
In the first half, N.C. State made 18 shots, nearly as many as the 20 Maryland attempted. The Wolfpack converted 12 three-point plays, including two coming from made baskets and free throws, in the half.
"You had [Ilian] Evtimov hitting NBA three-pointers," Terps forward Nik Caner-Medley said. "I had never seen that happen."
With 5 minutes 35 seconds remaining in the half, Maryland trailed by 26 points and had not made a basket in nearly nine minutes. That's when point guard John Gilchrist tried to seize control of the game, making back-to-back three-pointers.
After the second one, Gilchrist pumped his fist and pounded his chest before imploring his teammates to follow his lead. Some would, but it would prove too late.
N.C. State players felt little security despite the large lead. In each of their three conference losses, they held a double-digit lead.
Maryland scratched back early in the second half, holding the Wolfpack without a basket for more than eight minutes. Midway through the half, the Terps already had cut the 26-point halftime lead in half. Soon after, they closed to within 10 points in part because of Caner-Medley.
The junior, who had scored 61 points combined in the previous two games, missed all six of his first-half shots and did not score until 12:38 remained. But Caner-Medley finished with 15 points and 10 rebounds.
"The second half was nice," Williams said of the rally, "but that's stuff for losers. You don't get excited about coming back like that in the second half."
Wolfpack Coach Herb Sendek said it took the same amount of "heart" to hold off the Terps as it did to build the initial advantage. "I thought we learned hard lessons from those [earlier conference losses] that helped us today," said Engin Atsur, who made 5 of 10 three-point attempts.
In the game's final minutes, a handful of fans started heckling N.C. State's Julius Hodge, who turned toward them, smiled and pointed to the scoreboard.
"We came in with the mind-set that we were going to do it together as a team and not as individuals," said Hodge, who scored a game-high 20 points.
"When you play like that, you win."
