Virginia Tech Cruises Past Maryland 74-57
COLLEGE PARK, Md. (AP) -- Virginia Tech set the tone early in handing Maryland its most lopsided home loss in 12 years.
The Hokies opened the game with a 12-0 run, got a career-high 24 points from Erick Green and coasted to a 74-57 victory Thursday night.
It was Maryland's worst loss on its own court since an 82-64 defeat against Duke on Jan. 3, 1999.
"We didn't seem to have the energy that Virginia Tech had," Terps coach Gary Williams said.
Especially at the beginning, when the Hokies made their first four shots to take a 10-0 lead. After a Maryland timeout, Green scored on a drive to put Virginia Tech up by 12 and take the crowd right out of the game.
"It was huge," Green said.
"We kind of got them frustrated. They started forcing up some shots and turning the ball over," said Malcolm Delaney, who scored 19. "They fed right into our game plan."
Virginia Tech (12-5, 3-2 Atlantic Coast Conference) has won eight of nine, seven by double figures.
"I thought that was probably the best we played all season," coach Seth Greenberg said.
Green, a sophomore guard, went 12 for 16 from the field and the Hokies shot 54 percent against the nation's sixth-ranked defense in field goal percentage.
"Erick Green had just a monster game in terms of just playing with great poise," Greenberg said. "We talked about playing together and trusting each other, and we did all those things. It was just a really good team win."
The Terrapins (11-7, 1-3) couldn't recover from their awful start. Jordan Williams had 11 points and 11 rebounds to tie Len Elmore's school record of 12 straight double-doubles, but the sophomore forward made only one basket in the decisive first half.
Cliff Tucker led Maryland with 13 points and Adrian Bowie had 10.
A layup by Green put the Hokies up 53-36 with 14:32 left. After the Terrapins used four straight baskets by Tucker to close to 61-53 with 7:15 to go, a free throw by Victor Davila and a layup by Green began a 9-2 spree that put the game out of reach.
Gary Williams unveiled a new starting lineup, and the results were disastrous. Freshman guard Pe'Shon Howard and Tucker replaced Bowie and Terrell Stoglin.
After the Hokies made their first four shots to take a 10-0 lead, Williams called timeout and promptly put Stoglin and Bowie into the game.
Williams said Stoglin didn't start because he was late for a team function.
Bowie made Maryland's first basket, a 3-pointer. Minutes later, Bowie and Stoglin sank successive shots from beyond the arc to get the Terrapins to 17-13.
That's as close as Maryland would get.
Davila and Green made back-to-back dunks to spark a 9-2 spurt that made it 26-15, and a three-point play by Manny Atkins upped the margin to 12 points.
It was 40-29 at halftime.
In their only loss since Dec. 5, the Hokies blew a 31-24 halftime lead at North Carolina. They weren't about to let history repeat itself against Maryland.
"We kept our poise this time," Green said. "We weren't arguing, we weren't rattled. We just kept it going."
(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
