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WASHINGTON (Ticker) -- After a disappointing showing in the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament, Maryland opened its eighth straight NCAA Tournament with a strong performance. Juan Dixon scored 29 points and Lonny Baxter added 14 and nine rebounds as the top-seeded Terrapins cruised to an 85-70 victory over No. 16 Siena in the first round of the East Region. Maryland was upset by North Carolina State in the ACC tournament semifinals, preventing a showdown with league rival Duke, which is the top seed in the South. "There was some pressure because you keep hearing that a No. 1 seed had never lost to a 16 seed," Maryland coach Gary Williams said. "You have to keep getting better even though you are in the NCAA. I have always felt that way." The Terrapins took their first step towards a possible championship meeting with the Blue Devils, using three big runs to dispatch the Saints. Maryland was clinging to an 18-17 lead with 14:40 left in the first half before scoring 15 of the next 18 points. Baxter had two dunks during the spurt and Drew Nicholas capped it with a four-point play for a 32-21 cushion with 12:23 to go. "They're just too good for us to spot them eight or 10 points," Siena coach Rob Lanier said. "We wanted to forced them to shoot jump shots. They did and they made their fair amount of them." Siena inched within nine before Maryland went on a 14-4 spurt to build a 50-31 advantage. Dixon nailed two of his five 3-pointers and scored seven points during the stretch. "When a shooter makes a couple early it seems to build momentum for him and Juan took advantage of that," Williams said. The Saints scored seven of the final nine points of the first half to pull within 52-38 at halftime and made the first two baskets of the second half to narrow the lead to 10. But the Terrapins responded with a 15-2 run highlighted by six points from Dixon and five by Steve Blake, who scored 11 points and dished out 11 assists. Ryan Randle capped the streak with a layup to give Maryland a 67-44 lead with 12:22 left and Siena never got closer than 13 thereafter. The Terrapins had their largest lead, 70-46 on a 3-pointer by Dixon with 11 minutes remaining. Maryland (27-4) shot 49 percent (32-of-65) and made 10-of-22 3-pointers en route to its 14th victory in 15 games. The Terrapins face No. 8 Wisconsin in the second round on Sunday. James Clinton scored 16 points and Dwayne Archbold recorded 14 and nine rebounds for Siena (17-19), which has a five-game winning streak snapped and fell to 2-3 all-time in the NCAA Tournament. "We played a team in Siena that was really on a roll," Williams said. "I thought they would come out and play well and they did. We had to work, which is good because we don't expect any free rides." "I'm proud of my team, not only for the effort they gave tonight but the fact that we were in this position to begin with," Lanier said. "(The Terrapins are) just too good. They deserve a lot of credit, they're a very good team. They're as good as advertised." The Saints were the only team in the NCAA Tournament with a losing record. They earned a bid after winning the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference title and defeating Alcorn State in Tuesday's play-in game. |
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