No one crawled in his locker and no one refused to speak after Saturday afternoon’s discouraging 73-67 loss to No. 22 Maryland at the Joel Coliseum.

And heaven knows, the kids in black and gold couldn’t have felt much like conversing. Not after losing a home game that they might just as easily have won. Not after losing a game that might have turned a sour season around.

But there was Darius Songaila explaining how his missed layups likely cost his team the game.

And there was Rafael Vidaurreta looking media members in the eye — well, sort of, since he’s 6-foot-9 — and explaining that he was just too pumped-up to finish a half-dozen point-blank attempts, any one of which might have reversed the disastrous outcome.

And mostly there was guard Robert O’Kelley, whose junior year was supposed to be a victory tour, but has instead turned into an unending march of doom, despair and agony.

O’Kelley’s eyes were red and he slumped in a chair in a mixture of dismay and disbelief, but still he faced the music about his forced shots, rushed shots and errant shots

The leading returning scorer in the ACC, O’Kelley was shooting 36.3 percent from the field when Saturday’s game began. Now he’s shooting 35.6 percent, because he went 1-for-9 against the Terps, when all his teammates needed from him was just an average game. Not a great one — not the kind of game he used to have. Just an average one.

“I’ve never, ever been this bad,” said O’Kelley, sinking further into the furniture.

“Would we have been a better team today if Robert had done what he’s done best over the years — which is to score?” said Dave Odom, repeating a reporter’s question. “Yes, we would have been. But Robert was not on. Still, our other guys played on.”

Songaila played on to the tune of 22 points and 12 rebounds and the Deacs also got double-figure scoring from Josh Howard (11 points), Vidaurreta (10) and Ervin Murray (10).

But O’Kelley’s ugly two points and four turnovers in 30 minutes was too much to overcome.

Maryland (19-7, 8-4) got 20 points from Juan Dixon, most of them early, and 17 points from Terence Morris, most of them late. Poised freshman guard Steven Blake was as important as anyone with nine points and nine assists.

Reeling Wake (14-12, 5-8) wasn’t supposed to win this one, of course. Not against a Maryland team that has won six straight ACC games and even flattened Duke last week in CameronIndoor Stadium.

But Maryland could have been had this time. It shot 44 percent in the second half, got killed on the boards by the Deacs and didn’t get much at all from Lonny Baxter, the muscleman who clobbered the Blue Devils. Baxter fouled out with six minutes remaining.

“It was a game we badly needed to win,” said Odom. “Clearly, we had a chance to beat a great team.”

A hot start by Songaila gave Wake an early advantage. The Deacs led 28-21 with 5:55 left in the first half and could have been up 10 if not for a blown layup by Vidaurreta and a missed dunk by Antwan Scott.

Suddenly, Maryland started raining 3-pointers. The Terps made six 3s in the last eight minutes of the first half, three of them by Dixon, including a buzzer-beater. Maryland led 40-33 at halftime.

Wake spent most of the second half down anywhere from six to a dozen. But the Deacs, who amazingly enough scored their last field goal with over eight minutes left in the game, kept trying. They started marching to the foul line (they made 23 of 30) and the Terps went cold.

Two Songaila free throws with 1:32 remaining pulled the Deacs back to 68-66. Then Morris missed the front end of a one-and-one, giving Wake a chance to tie.

The next possession told the story of the entire game.

Songaila missed from in close. Vidaurreta rebounded and missed a layup. Songaila rebounded and misfired again. Finally, Terp reserve Tahj Holden rebounded and Songaila came over his back and was whistled for a foul. Two free throws by Holden and the Terps were back ahead 70-66.

“That sequence took something out of us,” said Odom.

So did the next one. That’s when the luckless O’Kelley fired up an airball on a 3-point try that would have cut Maryland’s lead to one.

Howard made a free throw with 24 seconds left to make it 70-67, but Morris canned two free throws with 18 seconds left to seal Wake’s fate.

“We had a huge effort,” Odom said. “But we couldn’t make shots from a foot away.”

Many of the Deacons were still talking with straight faces about making the NCAA Tournament after the game. But Wake is a whole lot further than a foot away from being part of that event.

In fact, when they go to Duke on Tuesday night, they’re going to be greeted with one of the Cameron Crazies’ favorite cheers for foes: “NIT, NIT.”

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