COLLEGE PARK, Md. — N.C. State wasted no time, starting its game Saturday night with a 7-0 lead, which grew to as much as nine by the 3:31 mark of the opening half. After senior forward Gavin Grant made two free throws with less than a second remaining in the first half, the Pack held a 33-31 halftime lead.
Then the free fall began.
In a resemblance of the team’s Jan. 31 loss at Duke, State gave up a halftime lead in a loss. The Terrapins scored 53 points in the second half, compared to the Pack’s 37, en route to an 84-70 win. The Pack was unable to recover, allowing Maryland to go up by as much as 15 points.
The victory for Maryland was Coach Gary Williams’ 601st.
After being pleased with the team’s performance in the first half, coach Sidney Lowe said his team wasn’t able to keep it up in the second half.
“We have to get to the point where we can duplicate that in the second half and understand that the defensive end is where you win it — especially in the second half,” Lowe said. “We were good enough defensively in the first half to give up 31 points, and we need to duplicate that. They came out and scored the first eight of nine times down the floor. Some of those were due to mental errors on our part, and against a good team you can’t do that.”
For all the improvements that the Pack has made through the season, the team’s Achilles’ heel has been the start of the second half. And according to freshman center J.J. Hickson, it’s something the players have not forgotten.
“That’s been the story all season,” Hickson said. “N.C. State, us up at halftime, and in the first few minutes of the second half, they blow the lead. I think it is just more of us getting relaxed with a lead at halftime and coming out flat.”
Grant led the team with 17 points, followed by Hickson and junior guard Courtney Fells with 14 each. The team only shot 44.3 percent from the field and was 52.9 percent from the 3-point line. The only Terp in double figures by halftime was senior James Gist with 18. He would finish with 30. Sophomore point guard Greivis Vasquez had 13 points, but also 15 assists.
Grant said State’s defense wasn’t as good as it should have been, especially against Gist.
“They have good players that play well when they have to,” Grant said. “But Gist should not get 30 points. He is good, but no one should score 30 points against us — that’s just bad defense on our part. If we could have controlled him in the first half, we would have been able to stretch out our lead a little more.”
Maryland shot 74.1 percent in the second half. Courtney Fells said the Terps’ shooting percentage in the second half shouldn’t have happened.
“That’s ridiculous,” Fells said. “That shows we are not doing what we are supposed to do on the defensive end. We have to want it, and it is very disappointing.”
A bright spot for the Wolfpack was the return of sophomore Brandon Costner. Costner, who sat out the Virginia Tech game on Tuesday with a rib injury, played for 25 minutes and scored nine points. Lowe said he was pleased with Costner’s effort.
“That was the one of the most encouraging things,” Lowe said. “I didn’t expect him to play. He endured some pain and toughed it out, but he wanted to be out there. I thought he did a nice job for being out for a while. He knows he is going to be sore, but he wanted to be out there. And that was encouraging because we needed him.”
Sights & SoundsTerps ForeverStudents wore yellow shirts saying “Terrapins forever” in red letters. The basketball team also wore gold uniforms.
State players have not-so-warm welcomeFans had a less than creative way to introduce the N.C. State basketball team at the Comcast Center. After every name was announced over the P.A. speakers, the fans would shout “sucks,” while shaking newspapers.
Bambale Osby’s long lost siblings?Maybe not. But four Maryland students wore black shirts and each letter of Osby’s name on their shirts. They also wore big, black fros.
600 winsAfter winning his 600th game Wednesday at Boston College, a video montage of Maryland coach Gary Williams was played on the Jumbotron 10 minutes before the game. The video showed when Williams started his career, when he won the national championship with the Terps in 2002, playing the song “Like a Rock.” — Fidelis Lusompa & David Boaz By the Numbers53 Points scored by Maryland in the second half, compared to State’s 3744.3 field goal percentage for the game by the Pack74.1 field goal percentage in the second half by the Terps601 wins for Maryland Coach Gary Williams4-5 ACC record for N.C. State7 Games remaining for State3 away games remaining this seasonSource: Maryland Athletics
