N.C. State whips slumping Maryland

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Posted 6:17AM on Monday, January 24, 2005

COLLEGE PARK, MARYLAND - North Carolina State played a marvelous first half, limiting Maryland to five field goals and going 10-for-18 from 3-point range to take a seemingly insurmountable lead. That was the easy part. The challenge was making the 26-point margin stand up. Led by Julius Hodge and Engin Atsur, the Wolfpack withstood a spirited comeback by the Terrapins and pulled away to an 85-69 victory Sunday. Hodge had 20 points and 11 rebounds, and Atsur scored 17 for N.C. State (12-6, 2-3 Atlantic Coast Conference). Ilian Evtimov added 16 points for the Wolfpack, who came in losing five of six. In each of its league losses this season, N.C. State blew a double-digit lead. Against Maryland in the ACC tournament last season, the Wolfpack led by 21 before losing. So after they took a 53-27 lead at halftime, the Wolfpack turned their attention toward avoiding another come-from-ahead defeat. ``We knew Maryland was going to make a run,'' Hodge said, ``but no matter what we were not going to lose this game.'' The Terrapins (11-5, 2-3) got within 10, but could get no closer. ``Maybe as difficult as anything tonight was when Maryland made its run, our guys showed the ability to hold tight and withstand the rally and increase the lead,'' Wolfpack coach Herb Sendek said. ``I think that took tremendous heart, as much heart as it did to play as well as they did the first 20 minutes.'' Nik Caner-Medley had 15 points and 10 rebounds for the Terrapins, who suffered their worst home loss since an 82-64 defeat against Duke on Jan. 3, 1999. Caner-Medley came in averaging 20.7 points over his previous seven games, but was held scoreless in the first half. Maryland went 5-for-20 from the field and had 10 turnovers before halftime. ``We just weren't ready to attack a good team,'' Maryland coach Gary Williams said. ``We didn't move the ball well on offense and we didn't have a spark on the defensive end of the court.'' Not in the first half, anyway. Maryland opened the second half with a full-court press that keyed a 14-4 run and cut the margin to 16. After a basket by Hodge, Caner-Medley hit a runner in the lane and James Gist made a three-point play to make it 59-46 with 9:49 left. A 5-0 burst cut the margin to 10 with 8:32 to go. At that point, the Wolfpack made only two field goals in the second half. But Atsur heated up when it mattered most. He hit two 3-pointers and a free throw in a 7-2 run that gave the Wolfpack a 15-point cushion with 5:38 remaining. ``Against Maryland in the ACC tournament, and against Duke and Virginia Tech, we were up and we lost. I think we learned hard lesson from those games that helped us today,'' Atsur said. The Wolfpack made six of their first nine shots, including four 3-pointers, to take a 16-4 lead. Maryland was 1-for-6 with three turnovers during that span. It was 18-10 before Jordan Collins sank a 3-pointer and Cedric Simmons and Hodge both made three-point plays during a 13-2 spurt that put NC State up by 19. After Ekene Ibekwe made a free throw for Maryland, Evtimov scored five straight points and Levi Watkins added a 3-pointer to make it 39-13. John Gilchrist then made successive 3-pointers to begin an 8-0 Maryland run, but Simmons scored five straight points and Atsur hit a 3-pointer to boost the margin to 27. ``They came out much harder than we did,'' Ibekwe said. ``I'm proud of our team for coming out in the second half and playing hard, but the margin was too large. We couldn't defeat it.'' Tony Bethel saw limited action for the Wolfpack after missing four straight games with colitis. He was held scoreless in two minutes.