 |
| |
|
 |
 |
|
|
WASHINGTON (Ticker) -- Maryland is back in familiar territory after waking up from a slow start. Juan Dixon scored 29 points for the second consecutive game as the top-seeded Terrapins cruised to an 87-57 rout of No. 8 Wisconsin in a second-round East Region matchup. Maryland (28-4) moved into the "Sweet 16" for the fourth time in five years. The Terrapins are hoping to go even further after reaching their first Final Four last season. "The thing about this team is from Juan Dixon on is that everybody on our team is about winning," Maryland coach Gary Williams said. "We are going to win the game any way we can and that was our attitude going into today's game." Wisconsin (19-13) led for most of the first half before Dixon put the Terrapins ahead for good with a 3-pointer for a 26-23 edge with 5:20 left before halftime. Maryland held a 38-30 edge at intermission. The Terrapins started the second half with a 14-3 run, leaving the Badgers searching for answers. Dixon, the Atlantic Coast Conference Player of the Year, scored seven points and capped the burst with a layup with 14 minutes for a 52-33 cushion. "I just wanted to come out and be aggressive," Dixon said. "We had an eight-point lead at the half and we wanted to stay aggressive offensively and keep the pressure on them." The onslaught continued for Maryland, which set a school record for largest margin of victory after all the damage was done. Wisconsin also set a school mark for the worst loss in NCAA Tournament history. "I think you'll have to look real hard across the country to see a team with a front line that can take two 6-10 and 6-9 guys out and replace them with two more 6-10 and 6-9 guys," Wisconsin guard Travon Davis said. "That was very impressive to me. And they also know how to score points." Williams is in the "Sweet 16" for the sixth time since 1994, second only to Tubby Smith's seven appearances. The Terrapins next face Smith and Kentucky on Friday in Syracuse, New York. Dixon broke a pair of scoring record for the Terrapins, becoming the all-time leading scorer as well as the all-time leading scorer in NCAA Tournament games. He has 2,172 points to surpass Len Bias' mark of 2,149 with 197 coming in NCAA play. "It's a great accomplishment, especially in my situation coming to Maryland," said Dixon, a Baltimore native. "A lot of people knocked Gary Williams for recruiting me. I just wanted to go out there and prove a lot of those critics wrong." Chris Wilcox scored 18 points and Lonny Baxter added 16 for Maryland, which shot 52 percent (32-of-62). Baxter, a Washington native, played his final game in his hometown and also added seven rebounds. The Terrapins were bolstered by the crowd of 18,789 spectators, which included mostly Maryland fans. They improved to 4-0 at the MCI Center this season, including two victories in the BB&T Classic in December in which Baxter was named the Most Valuable Player. Charlie Wills scored 17 points and Davis netted 15 for Wisconsin, which made just 5-of-19 shots from beyond the arc. The Badgers concluded their first season under coach Bo Ryan, their third coach in as many years, after sharing the regular-season title in the Big Ten Conference. "I just want to tell the players that I'm extremely proud of the season that they've had, the committment that they made and what they've done this season," Ryan said. "They had a heck of a year, and I'm extremely proud of them." Maryland defeated Wisconsin for the first time in five meetings and avenged a 78-75 overtime loss last season. |
|
||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||
