Upset bid vs. Villanova dies late for men's basketball

PHILADELPHIA – All season the Terrapin men's basketball team has weathered tough games against ranked opponents that dissolved into losses. Those disappointments were seemingly closing to an end midway through the second half against No. 7 Villanova as the team held a 12-point lead.

But only seemingly. Behind a rampant crowd at Wells Fargo Center, the Wildcats powered their way back into the game as the Terps started to wither under pressure, making ill-advised passes, taking bad shots and failing to crash the boards.

Villanova ripped off a 19-0 run to comeback and eventually put away the upset-minded Terps, 74-66.

"We played at a really good level for about 33 minutes," coach Gary Williams said. "You know Villanova is not going to go away. You have to make shots and continue to make shots when the other team is getting hot."

After forward Jordan Williams missed a free-throw attempt with 9:27 remaining in the game, the Wildcats (16-1) started a run centered on by long-range shooting and stiff defense.

While Villanova continued to sink its shots, chipping away at the lead, the Terps (11-6) tried to stretch their game to the perimeter. After the Wildcats tied the game at 59 with a 3-pointer by guard Corey Fisher, the Terps took four straight shots from beyond 20 feet, none of which fell.

Williams, who dominated the paint for much of the game and finished with a game-high 25 points and 14 rebounds, nearly disappeared during that stretch, as the Terps opted for long-range bombs instead of looking inside.

"We just had a mental letdown for five minutes and you can't do that against good teams," forward Dino Gregory said. "I felt one play went bad, then another play went bad and it kept going. I looked up at the scoreboard and they were up by three."

None of the Terps' six losses this season has come by double digits.

"Were not able to sustain the level of play necessary to beat the seventh ranked team here in Philadelphia," Gary Williams said. "There's no moral victories or anything like that."

Jordan Williams broke the more than seven-minute Terp drought with a layup inside from guard Terrell Stoglin with 2:13 remaining in the game. But by that time, the Wildcats were putting the finishing touches on their comeback win.

Yet again, the Terps struggled at the free throw line, converting 10 of 18 and just one of their final five.

"We had a lot of confidence," Jordan Williams said. "We tried to spread our game out a little more instead of trying to go inside."

Just as Duke forward Kyle Singler did against the Terps less than a week ago, Villanova guard Maalik Wayns sunk a 3-pointer with a minute remaining to all but push the game out of reach.

"I thought Villanova upped the way they played," Gary Williams said. "Villanova executed well. You have to give them credit for them being able to handle that situation. It's not their first time around."

The Terps extended their three-point halftime lead with an 8-2 run to start the second half. Williams made several layups close in, while Stoglin and Mosley hit midrange shots to stretch the Villanova defense.

Eyeing their first signature win of the season, the Terps couldn't sustain their energy for the final 10 minutes of the game and fell at the hands of yet another ranked team. They started to show the fatigue from a week that included road games at Duke and at Wake Forest.

"We had to really dig deep to play today," Williams said. "A lot of teams come in here and get blown out. We weren't quite good enough."

The fate of the Terps' postseason now lies in their fortune for the final 14 games of their regular season, including 13 in the ACC.

"We still have the chance to do well in our league," Williams said, "but we have to do it for 40 minutes."

ceckard@umdbk.com