EAGLES FLY PAST TERPS

GREENSBORO, N.C. â€" The Terrapin men's basketball team decided to dress in black uniforms for its ACC tournament quarterfinal game Friday night. Whether the Terps' 80-66 loss to Boston College should be considered a funeral for their NCAA hopes will be determined Sunday.

Just 24 hours after dominating Georgia Tech, the Terps (18-12) fell behind 27-6 and blew a chance to effectively lock up an at-large bid.

"After last night it was disappointing to come out and play like we did," coach Gary Williams said. "We really didn't give ourselves a chance to see if we could be in a competitive situation in that first half."

The Terps got back to within 14 points in the second half, but after a game that was never really competitive, they had to answer tough questions about whether their tournament resume is good enough.

"I hope so," Williams said. "We've worked hard. I've worked hard and the players have worked hard, and I hope that's good enough. It's a very difficult situation this year with the way things are, and we're going to wait like everybody else and see what happens on Sunday."

"I'm very confident," senior captain Nik Caner-Medley said of the Terps' chances. "I think it comes down to the way we finished off the season and getting to 19 wins. I think that we've proven we're one of the best 34 teams [for] the at-large bids. The most I know is, they say they pick the best teams."

Regardless of their outlook, there wasn't much positive to take from the 40 minutes on the floor Friday night. The Terps shot just 34.8 percent from the field while the No. 3-seeded Eagles made half of their shots.

And almost every time the Terps got a timely block or steal to gain a hint of momentum, they would make a poor decision or miss an open shot.

"We just didn't come out like the team that's been coming out in the past couple games," junior guard D.J. Strawberry. "They were just getting confidence and they continued to hit shots throughout the whole game."

Further complicating their postseason chances, Caner-Medley sprained his ankle early in the second half and didn't return. He walked off the court with a slight limp after the game, and Williams said he would probably be ready to play this upcoming week.

With Caner-Medley out and several players in foul trouble, the Terps had to go deep into their bench, and the Eagles took advantage of having fresher legs.

"I think they had more in their tanks tonight," Caner-Medley said. "We seemed a little bit more worn down."

It didn't help that the building was more than half empty and almost silent at times during the second half, making the atmosphere seem more like a scrimmage than a tournament game.

One group of fans chanted "sweat the turtle" as the final minutes rolled off the clock, which may have been fitting considering how the Terps will have to wait until the brackets are unveiled Sunday evening to see if they achieved their season-long goal of returning to the NCAA tournament.

Williams â€" who whipped off his jacket in frustration during the first half â€" said it "hurts" to watch his team lose without playing to their ability. But the coach didn't change his stance on the team's work ethic down the stretch.

"I'm proud of the team," Williams said. "In coaching you have to be careful that you don't let one game influence how you think of the year. We've battled some things this year that we haven't had to battle in the past at Maryland, and we came through pretty tough. To get to where we're 9-9 in the 18 league games we've played and having the 11^th raked schedule in the country, we've done some good things this year."

Contact reporter David Selig at dseligdbk@gmail.com.