No. 13 Maryland whips Mercer

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Posted 7:44AM on Wednesday, November 24, 2004

COLLEGE PARK, MARYLAND - Moments after No. 13 Maryland disposed of another non-conference opponent at home, the Terrapins began looking forward to facing much stiffer competition on the road. Nik Caner-Medley scored 21 points, and Maryland placed four other players in double figures Tuesday night in a 93-67 rout of Mercer. The Terrapins opened the season by beating Jackson State, then hammered Mercer for their 13th straight non-conference home win and 103rd in 105 such games since the start of the 1989-90 season. Chris McCray had 15 points and a career-best nine rebounds for the Terrapins (2-0), who closed the first half with a 10-0 run to go up 49-31. Maryland stretched the lead to 31 before coach Gary Williams emptied his bench. Next up for the Terps: No. 25 Memphis on Friday and 20th-ranked Wisconsin next week. ``We know what's ahead of us,'' Williams said. ``For us, it's a matter of just deciding what we want to be, how tough a team we want to be. It starts showing up Friday night. When you have the better players you should win; we have the first two games.'' John Gilchrist scored 14, D.J. Strawberry had 13 and James Gist 10 for the Terrapins, who put 10 different players in the scoring column. ``I think we're ready,'' McCray said. ``We know that we can score with anybody in the country. Defense is going to take us as far as we want to go.'' The Terrapins' defense was solid against Mercer. Maryland forced 28 turnovers, had 14 steals and blocked nine shots. ``They're very good, obviously, and their pressure just wears you down,'' Mercer coach Mark Slonaker said. Will Emerson scored a career-high 21 points for Mercer (1-1), including 16 before halftime. The Bears were outrebounded 51-34 in their 11th straight defeat against a Top 25 team. But Slonaker believes that Mercer, of the Atlantic Sun Conference, will be better for the experience of playing before more than 17,000 fans. ``It's great for our kids. You can't simulate that,'' he said. ``We average about 1,500 a game, so for us coming into this environment is great.'' After a dunk by Caner-Medley put Maryland ahead by 19 with 17 minutes left, Mercer got a layup from Damitrius Coleman and a 3-pointer from James Odoms before Williams was called for a technical foul. Emerson made one of two free throws to bring the Bears to 54-41, but Gilchrist helped the Terrapins pull away, hitting a pair of 3-pointers and feeding Caner-Medley for a layup to make it 66-45 with 11 minutes to go. Soon after that, the Terrapins began looking ahead to their next challenge. ``I want to go to war with Memphis and Wisconsin for 40 minutes, just play as hard as we can and come out with wins,'' Strawberry said. ``That's what you play college basketball for.'' Led by Emerson, Mercer kept it close early. The 6-foot-10 junior scored the Bears' first 11 points, going 4-for-6 while his teammates went 0-for-9. Maryland made its first seven baskets from in the lane, then used two free throws by Strawberry and a 3-pointer by Mike Jones to take a 23-11 lead. After Andrew Brown answered with a layup for the Bears, Ekene Ibekwe scored for Maryland before Emerson made a layup to spark a 10-2 run that made it 27-23. With Caner-Medley scoring inside and hitting from long range, Maryland pushed the margin to 11 before Emerson hit a 3-pointer to surpass his previous career high of 15 points, set in the opener against Albany State. But the Bears failed to score in the final four minutes of the first half, and the Terrapins stretched their lead behind five points from Strawberry, a three-point play by McCray and an alley-oop dunk by Caner-Medley.