Eagles snatch tourney hopes

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - It's only fitting that the Terrapins' NCAA Tournament hopes would officially end with the Terps blowing a couple of double-digit leads.

First half or second half, it didn't seem to matter this season. And it certainly didn't last night, as the Terp men's basketball team found new ways to let big leads slip away time and time again.

Nothing was different in the first round of the ACC Tournament.

After jumping out to an early 15-point lead, the sixth-seeded Terps slowly but surely let No. 11-seed Boston College back into the game. And after again being outplayed down the stretch, the Terps lost to the Eagles 71-68 at Charlotte Bobcats Arena. It was the final knockout blow to a season many people will want to forget.

The Terps (18-14) will miss the NCAA Tournament for the third time in four seasons. Since their 2004 ACC Championship, the Terps are 1-4 in the ACC Tournament.

"This really hurts right now," coach Gary Williams said. "I thought we had battled ourselves back [from a bad start to the season] into a situation where we probably had a shot to get to the NCAA Tournament, which we wanted to do for the second-straight year. And we didn't do it."

Williams said the Terps would accept an NIT bid if invited to play in the secondary postseason tournament.

"Yeah we'll play," he said. "We got six freshmen. I want to see some more things that we can do. And it's a good showcase for guys like James [Gist]."

But Gist and the Terps obviously would have rather played in the NCAA Tournament.

"A lot of things were going through my head when we walked off the court," said Gist, who led the Terps with 19 points. "It was just sad to walk off the court without that win. I know this team wanted that win, and we wanted to compete for this title. We lost that opportunity by losing this game."

After jumping out to a 20-5 lead, the Terps were dominated. They slowly blew the 15-point lead in the first half and only led by six at halftime.

Then, even after starting strong to begin the second half, the Terps stopped playing defense for the second-straight game. Boston College (14-16) erased an 11-point deficit with a 19-5 run and took a 44-41 lead with 11:33 left. The lead didn't last long, though, as the Terps regained it a few minutes later.

But a 50-47 advantage with 7:40 to go would be the last time the Terps led. The Eagles went on an 11-0 run and never lost control of the game from that point forward.

"I think our confidence got hurt the first time we [blew the big lead]," Williams said. "We weren't strong enough to stay tough.

"We started out great. We couldn't sustain it in the first half," Williams added. "I thought we had a chance to maybe put them away the first half, but we allowed them to see the light a little bit, and it gave them reason to believe they could catch us in the second half."

Boston College came into last night having lost 12 of its past 13 games, but it clearly wanted the win more and proved that simply by out-hustling the Terps. They got to more loose balls, forced more turnovers and played tougher defense, especially in the second half.

The Eagles out-rebounded the Terps 41-31 and grabbed more offensive boards (21) than defensive rebounds (20). The Terps, prone to turning the ball over, had 21 last night, a recurring theme of the season.

And nothing summed up the second half more than when Gist let an easy rebound slip out of his hands after a missed Boston College free throw with 39 seconds left. Guard Biko Paris tracked down the rebound for the Eagles, and the Terps were forced to foul instead of try to cut into the late deficit.

"It's going to come down to who plays harder and who plays with more aggression and heart," said Boston College point guard Tyrese Rice, who led the Eagles with 19 points, 17 of which came in the second half cq.

Last night, Rice and the Eagles were clearly the team with more aggression and more heart, and now the Terps have an entire weekend to sit home and reflect on it.

"I came into this Tournament thinking we had a chance to win this," Gist said. "That was my goal and that was the team's goal. First we had to take care of Boston College. We had to take it one game at a time."

They didn't. Now it's likely on to the NIT.

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