WINSTON-SALEM — The scoreboard clock said 4:40 remained to be played on Wednesday night, but Wake Forest fans had already seen more than enough.
They were scurrying toward the exits, filing like black and gold lemmings from Joel Coliseum as fast as their legs could carry them. Even the most fanatical of Demon Deacon supporters — those who had arrived with various shades of yellow body paint covering their torsos — couldn’t take another second of Maryland’s 85-63 destruction of Wake.
Skip Prosser didn’t condemn the fans for their fair-weathered flight. In fact, if he hadn’t been under contract to coach the No. 21 Deacs, he would have joined the mass exodus.
“I thought our crowd was terrific,” said Prosser. “But we gave them no reason to help us. We didn’t deserve their help.”
A peeved Prosser didn’t bother with political correctness in his postgame comments, tossing around unflattering adjectives for his team’s ho-hum effort like so much confetti.
“I expected us to be highly motivated,” he said. “But we were tentative. We were tight. We were afraid. We threw half-hearted passes. I thought we would play this game with tremendous passion, but we showed an abject lack of confidence. We were defeated in every way possible.”
It was billed as a heavyweight matchup of conference contenders, but the third-ranked Terrapins (15-3, 5-1) put a match to that theory. They trailed only once — at 4-2 — on their way to tying Duke for the ACC lead.
Two streaks collided last night. One died. Maryland extended its impressive streak of wins over Wake to six, but the Deacs’ undefeated season at home — they’d won nine in a row — fell by the wayside.
“That’s what hurts,” said Prosser. “You have to win the games at home. You don’t expect someone to bring the fight to you on your home floor.”
The most discouraging aspect of Wake’s third straight setback (all to top 10 teams) was that Maryland wasn’t formidable early on.
All-ACC big man Lonny Baxter was shackled by two fouls after just six minutes. Forward Byron Mouton was invisible. All-ACC guard Juan Dixon, bothered by long-armed Josh Howard, shot 1-for-7 in the first half.
But Maryland got 19 first-half points off its bench, including seven straight by backup guard Drew Nicholas. That was enough to forge a 36-30 lead over the sluggish, cold-shooting Deacons (13-6, 3-3).
Prosser stared into his team’s eyes at halftime and didn’t like what he saw.
“I mean, we’re only down three buckets at home,” he fumed. “But I just didn’t have a good feel. We seemed very unsure of ourselves. I didn’t see there was any confidence we could make a game of it.”
It was a self-fulfilling prophecy. Once the Terps got things rolling, Wake rolled over. The Deacon defense was awful in the second half and was riddled by 60.9 percent Maryland shooting.
“We’ve played better offense and we’ve played better defense,” said Maryland coach Gary Williams. “But the second half was as solid as we’ve played both ends of the floor at the same time.”
Dixon picked up his pace enough to finish with 19 points. Point guard Steve Blake, who was left open all night, abused Brod Hicks and Taron Downey for another 19, the most he’s ever scored in an ACC game.
“I got in a shooting groove,” said Blake. “I was surprised they just let me keep shooting.”
“We knew Blake could shoot and we did want to get out on him,” said Downey. “But we just didn’t communicate well on the screens.”
Wake trailed only 52-44 with 14:26 left to play, but Maryland doubled that eight-point lead over the next 88 seconds.
Blake started the killing run with a jumper. Then came two steals by Dixon, which led to his own dunk and another by Ryan Randle. Two Nicholas free throws finished the burst, ending any suspense and leaving Prosser, the Deacs and Deacon fans to pick up the pieces.
“We don’t think Maryland is a bad matchup for us,” insisted Wake’s Darius Songaila, who led his team with 14 points, but missed 10 shots in the paint. “They just happened to shoot well and we made turnovers.”
Seventeen Wake giveaways did lead to 24 Maryland points, but on this night, there was a lot more than that wrong with the Deacons.
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NOTES:A thoroughly discouraged Wake team didn’t score the last 3 minutes, 8 seconds. ... Deacon frustration spilled over early in the second half when Howard was assessed a technical foul for shoving Mouton.
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Contact Mike London at 704-797-4259 or mlondon@salisburypost.com
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