Collegiate Times

COLLEGE PARK, Md. - Perhaps inspired by the recent negativity toward their head coach, the Maryland Terrapins led wire-to-wire Saturday and defeated the Virginia Tech Hokies, 83-73, at the Comcast Center in College Park.

The loss snaps Tech's three-game win streak over Maryland (15-8, 5-5 ACC).

"We had no energy," sophomore guard and Baltimore native Malcolm Delaney said. "We had no momentum coming from practice -- we had a bad week of practice. We just got, basically, what we deserve."

After the Terrapins went up by 11 early in the second half, the Hokies (16-8, 6-4) put together a run when Jeff Allen scored following an offensive rebound. 

Quickly thereafter, a Maryland turnover led to a 3-point connection from their specialist A.D. Vassallo, which sliced the lead in half, 48-45. 

"We came back, cut it down to three, and then they were persistent and made a couple big shots.  It just didn't happen," the senior said. "It happens every once in a while where you get a big lead like NC State and come down and win the game -- it doesn't happen every single game."

But Maryland had an answer in the form of guard Eric Hayes - who countered with a three of his own. Forward Landon Milbourne then recorded a conventional 3-point play. 

Leading scorer and rebounder Greivis Vasquez picked up his fourth personal foul with 8:32 still left in the contest.  However, that didn't deter the Terps, who staved off Tech in fine fashion the rest of the way - never letting the lead get below six.  The Hokies trailed by as much as 13 with 4:04 left.    

Tech was paced by Vassallo, who scored 20 points on 6-of-13 shooting.

However, Maryland was effective defensively.  Two of Tech's vaunted "Big Three" were held in check for the majority of the game.  The trio entered Saturday averaging a combined 52 points per game, but were held to a 44-point effort by the Terrapins.

Allen, who played his high school basketball at nearby DeMatha, picked up his fifth foul with 3:15 to go.  It ended his day with eight points and nine rebounds.

Struggling most of the way, Delaney only had four points in the first half and finished with 16.  Unfortunately for Tech, he found his stroke late in the contest when the outcome was all but decided.  All three of his makes from beyond the arc came in the final 2:17.

"I thought that they played Malcolm pretty physically," Tech head coach Seth Greenberg said. "We didn't really screen very well for him...I have confidence in his shot, when he shoots he thinks it's going in. His 6-15 wasn't because he can't shoot -- he took some bad shots."

The Terps opened up with an 11-4 lead after a 3-pointer from Vasquez.  Tech couldn't keep up, missing five of their first seven attempts from the field.

It went up to eight with just over three minutes to go before intermission and was 34-29 at halftime.

Maryland opened up the second half hot - scoring on all but two of their first seven possessions.  Five consecutive points from Vasquez pushed the lead to double-digits.

Milbourne spelled a foul-plagued Vazquez and led Gary Williams' club with a game-high 23 points.

Despite having the worst rebounding margin in the Atlantic Coast Conference, Maryland was even with their opponent in that category.  Both clubs had 31 boards. 

The Terps did, however, show why they're tops in free throw percentage.  They connected on 34 of their 36 foul shots - a 92.3 percent clip.

"The free throw shooting was good down the stretch," Williams said.  "We've always been a good free throw shooting team and we showed it down the stretch."

Tech, meanwhile, were just under 62 percent from the line.  Field goal shooting proved to be a wash.  The Hokies (47.3 percent) were slightly outdone by the Terps (48.1). 

The Hokies will complete their two-game road trip when they face the Virginia Cavaliers in Charlottesville on Wednesday at 8 p.m.