WINSTON-SALEM — If the Wake Forest men’s basketball team was looking for trouble, it came to the right place Saturday afternoon.
The 23rd-ranked Demon Deacons found it against victory-starved Maryland, a team that had dropped three straight ACC encounters including a humiliating Valentine’s Day loss at home to bottom feeder Florida State.
“It couldn’t get any worse than that,” Terps guard Juan Dixon said after visiting Maryland rebounded with a 73-57 win over Wake. “We needed to play hard today. It didn’t matter who our opponent was. I feel sorry for them because we were going to run through somebody if we had to and they just got in our way.”
The victory gave No. 17 Maryland (16-9) a 7-6 league record and helped unclog a four-way tie for third place in the conference standings. The Terps shot 49 percent from the field, outscored Wake 40-20 in the paint and held a 45-30 advantage off the boards.
“They were clearly a team on a mission,” coach Dave Odom said after Wake (17-8) slipped to 6-7 in the ACC. “That’s the best I’ve seen a team play this year. Their interior passing was absolutely splendid. I can’t remember the last time we were taken apart inside the way they took us apart today.”
Most of the damage was caused by Maryland center Lonny Baxter. The 6-foot-8, 260-pound junior shot 9-for-15 from the field, topped all scorers with 19 points and rebounders with 14.
“We had no answer for him,” said Wake’s Darius Songaila. “Every time he got the ball he either shot layups for two points or the referee called a foul.”
The Deacons, meanwhile, were unable to penetrate against frontliners Terrence Morris, Byron Mouton and Baxter. Wake was forced to the perimeter, but made only 17 of 54 field-goal attempts (32 percent). “That’s not gonna do it,” guard Robert O’Kelley said after missing eight of nine tries.
Wake did bring the near-sellout crowd to its feet early in the second half when Broderick Hicks nailed a 3-pointer that snapped a 35-35 tie. Trailing for the first time, Maryland coach Gary Williams signaled for time and had the Terps switch from a man-to-man defense to a zone. It proved decisive.
“I thought things were heading in the right direction,” said Odom. “Then they called the timeout, came out zone and we never saw the man again. And we did not play well against their zone.”
They played miserably. Wake was outscored 19-5 during the next seven minutes, then made only three of 11 shots from the floor in the last 6:57.
“We couldn’t get our offense together,” said Songaila. “We couldn’t get the ball inside and when the outside shots wouldn’t fall, you knew it was a tough game.”
Odom insisted on crediting Maryland for its tell-tale, on-the-fly defensive adjustment.
“Let’s look at what happened on the floor,” he said. “What happened was they whipped us. They played the game from three feet away and we played it from 30. That’s a bad combination.”
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NOTES: Williams made a good point when he told reporters the Terps had scored 47 points in the second half against Florida State and “played as well as we did here.” ... Hicks shot 5-for-10 from the field and led the Deacs with 14 points. Dixon had 17 points and four steals — three of them in the first four minutes when Maryland built a 13-4 lead. ... Wake returns to action Wednesday night at Clemson, then closes its ACC regular season against Duke next Saturday and N.C. State on March 4.
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