'Beatable' Hokies Topple Terps

BLACKSBURG, Va., Jan. 12 -- Before Maryland resumed ACC play against Virginia Tech on Saturday, outspoken Maryland guard Greivis Vasquez offered a typically frank assessment of the weight attached to the Terrapins' upcoming game, then went so far as to say that the Hokies were good, though "beatable."

"If we don't beat them, we're in trouble," Vasquez said.

Little more than 24 hours later, Vasquez held his team's fate in his hands. With two seconds left and the Terrapins trailing by one, Vasquez found some free space behind a screen by teammate James Gist and launched a three-point attempt over the outstretched arms of Virginia Tech forward Deron Washington. But Vasquez's final chance at redemption clanked off the rim, allowing the Hokies to hand Maryland a grueling 67-66 loss before a crowd of 9,847 at Cassell Coliseum.

"I thought I made the last one," said Vasquez, who finished with 10 points. "It felt good."

Instead, the miss merely capped off one of the worst shooting nights of Vasquez's career. He finished 2 for 14 from the field, missing all seven three-point attempts, a performance the Terrapins could ill afford with starting point guard Eric Hayes on the bench for his second straight game because of a sprained left ankle.

"It kills me to lose a game like this," Vasquez said. "It was just hard for me to find myself on the floor."

Maryland (10-7, 0-2 ACC) led 33-27 at halftime, using a 23-14 rebounding edge to seize control of the game. In the second half, Virginia Tech (10-6, 1-1) looked like the more desperate team, scrounging for critical loose balls and outrebounding the Terrapins 26-14 the rest of the way. The Terrapins' four-game winning streak ended, and they lost for the first time this season after leading at halftime.

"If you want to win on the road, you have to play with a certain personality for 40 minutes," Maryland Coach Gary Williams said. "And we did for 20."

Maryland led by five with 1 minute 46 seconds left when Terrapins center Bambale Osby made 1 of 2 free throws. But Virginia Tech's Hank Thorns hit a fallaway jumper, and Baltimore native Malcolm Delaney hit a three-pointer to tie the score with 52 seconds left.

Washington made a critical play with 27 seconds left, slapping the ball away from Gist. Freshman Jeff Allen, who scored a game-high 17 points, followed by hitting 1 of 2 free throws with 12.4 seconds remaining, which left Maryland needing last-second heroics.

"Brad, the philosopher of the family, he would always say it's one play between actually tasting your food tonight and wanting to throw it up," said Hokies Coach Seth Greenberg, quoting his brother and former assistant coach to describe the tense final moments of the game.

Gist led the Terrapins with 16 points, and Osby had 14 points and 12 rebounds. But it wasn't enough to overcome a strong second-half effort by Virginia Tech, which benefited from 16 points by A.D. Vassallo, who shook off early foul trouble to make several crucial baskets for the Hokies.

Maryland's freshman class gave the Terrapins something of a silver lining. In 28 minutes, freshman guard Adrian Bowie scored 12 points on 6-of-8 shooting. Freshman guard Cliff Tucker scored 10 points while making his second straight start in place of Hayes. But the positive signs offered little consolation to Williams afterward.

"That part's all good, but you have to win," Williams said. "You can't expect to be a good team if you don't feel really bad that we lost this game. I don't care what the injury situation was. I just felt we should have won that game, and we didn't get it."

Part of the outcome, of course, turned on Vasquez, who missed his first 11 shots before making a pair of layups down the stretch. The crowd booed Vasquez each time he touched the basketball on a day that turned into his worst shooting game since going 1 of 11 against Miami last season during a home loss that also sent the Terrapins to 0-2 in the ACC.

"He was getting very frustrated with his shots not going down," said Delaney, who guarded Vasquez. "He was kind of talking to himself, saying that he had to hit some shots. But I just stayed with him. Hayes wasn't in the game, so I had to limit their one guy that scores."