Terps continue Tar Heels' deep freeze

With the Terrapin men's basketball team's lead mounting, guards Greivis Vasquez and Eric Hayes had just checked out of yesterday's game against North Carolina for the final time.
Seldom-used reserves David Pearman and Ersin Levent were seconds from entering a blowout conference win.

Guard Sean Mosley jumped in front of North Carolina guard Dexter Strickland's pass near midcourt, setting the stage for a final exclamation point.

With a North Carolina player chasing helplessly behind, Mosley leaped and dunked, posing for the crowd as he extended the Terps' lead to 25 points.

The Terps have beaten North Carolina in each of the past three seasons, but never in such convincing fashion.

They crushed the struggling defending national champions, 92-71, at Comcast Center today, rewarding fans who slogged through the snow-covered roads and sidewalks with a third straight blowout home win.

About a year after fans celebrated the Terps' win against then-No. 3 North Carolina by storming the Comcast Center court, the Terps overcame the monster snowstorm that fouled up preparations for both teams and continued the Tar Heels' (13-10, 2-6 ACC) fall from grace.

"It's just a win for us," forward Landon Milbourne said. "We're just going to come out here and continue to get as many wins as we can. It's not like they're the number one team or anything like that. For us, it was just another ACC game and another chance to show people how good we are."

Vasquez sparked the offense with 26 points and 11 assists on a career-high-tying six 3-pointers. Milbourne and Hayes — the other parts of coach Gary Williams' senior trio — added 16 points and 15 points, respectively. And the Terps (16-6, 6-2) used a second-half surge to put away North Carolina, which lost for the seventh time in nine games.

"You want to play well, but you're proud of the guys when they make the effort in a little bit different situation, and I think we did that today," said Williams, who was noticeably emotional in his postgame radio interview regarding his team's play.

The Terps built an early double-digit lead, buoyed by an increased student presence in the crowd and a hot shooting start from long range. Hayes and Vasquez combined to hit the team's first five 3-pointers as part of the team's 9-for-16 effort on first-half threes.

But North Carolina clawed back early in the second half, closing to within four on guard Marcus Ginyard's free throw with 12:59 left.

The Terps quickly swung back the momentum with a 10-0 run spanning less than two minutes. Vasquez had five points, a rebound, a steal and an assist during the spurt, including a 3-pointer in transition that put the Terps up by 14.

"It was just fun," said Vasquez, who had his lone career triple-double in last season's win against the Tar Heels. "That makes me look good because I love to run."

The momentum surge continued. By the time Tar Heels' coach Roy Williams punctuated a timeout request by slapping the scorer's table with 8:09 remaining and his team down 77-59, the Terps were comfortably in command.

"The game got kinda close, so we just decided to go on a run — pick it up on defense a little bit, try to get some steals, try to get some easy layups," Milbourne said. "And we just went out there and did it."

Although the game was never in real danger of being postponed — thanks to an ACC policy that mandates games should be played if the opposing team and the officials are present — getting a crowd was a more questionable proposition.

But ultimately, much of the lower section of the arena was filled with students and season-ticket holders who braved the conditions.

"We didn't let [the snow affect us;] that was the key thing," Gary Williams said. "The players were really good. On a college campus when there's a snowstorm, for those of you who can remember, there's a lot going on, and to a man, our guys stayed tough."

None of those unusual circumstances mattered, as Gary Williams' team powered through the Tar Heels in the same fashion as it did against some of their less heralded ACC opponents earlier this season.

As several of the players noted, it wasn't just a pleasant ending to a snowy weekend.
It was also an expected beatdown of a struggling team that can serve as a conference-wide reminder the Terps have evolved into ACC contenders.

"We needed this win today," Vasquez said. "It was a must-win, and we got it."

edetweiler@umdbk.com