By Scott Clipp
Senior staff writer
Gary Williams strode onto the Comcast Center floor to the customary standing ovation from the Terrapin faithful.
Williams raised his right fist to the crowd, drawing the usual eruption from the Terp fans, but Williams’s fist pump was a little more dramatic last night.
He paused for a short second and emphatically thrust his fist into the air – perhaps signifying his urgency in the Terps’ ACC opener against No. 6-ranked Boston College.
Not only did the No. 21 Terps match their coach’s intensity throughout 40 minutes of exciting basketball, they turned in their best performance of the season, outlasting the Eagles 73-71 before a boisterous Comcast crowd.
“We really had to come out with great intensity,” Williams said. “The X’s and O’s are always important, but the intensity level had to match B.C.’s. – Tonight was important obviously because it was a league game, but to give us the confidence that we can play against this level of team.”
The Terps (7-2, 1-0 ACC) showed their mettle in defeating the highest-ranked opponent they’ve faced all season. Though the Terps relinquished their lead a few times in the second half, they withstood a physical Boston College team playing in its first ACC game since joining the conference.
Behind junior Ekene Ibekwe’s 21 points and nine rebounds, the Terps enter a 12-day layoff, knowing they can knock off a top-10 team after falling to a pair of ranked foes earlier this season.
“I’m sure the players were hoping we’d win, so they didn’t have to put up with me for 12 days after a loss,” Williams said. “I had a pretty good feeling in the locker room tonight. I knew the effort was going to be there.”
The Terps didn’t exactly put on a clock management clinic in the final moments, but they did enough to secure the win, causing students to rush the floor in celebration.
The Terps led 73-68 with less than five seconds remaining, before Boston College’s Tyrese Rice hit a 3-pointer from the left wing to cut the Terp lead to two with 2.2 seconds left.
On the ensuing inbounds pass, senior Nik Caner-Medley threw the ball away trying to get it to Chris McCray. Boston College had the ball under the Terps’ basket with a chance to tie, but Louis Hinnant overthrew the inbounds pass and Ibekwe corralled it.
“We felt like we were going to win this game the whole time,” said junior guard D.J. Strawberry, who finished with four points and four assists. “We knew if we wanted to be a good team we had to win tonight and win big games like this.”
Strawberry struggled early, picking up two quick fouls in the first half. But it was his play down the stretch that allowed the Terps hand Boston College (6-2, 0-1 ACC) its second straight loss after the Eagles fell to No. 14 Michigan State last week.
Strawberry didn’t notch his first point until there was 4:41 left in the game, but that free throw broke a 62-62 tie. He converted a lay-up on the Terps’ next possession to push the lead to three.
Boston College tried to rally, but ultimately their poor free throw shooting doomed them. The Eagles shot a dismal 33 percent (5-of-15) from the foul line, the same percentage as their 3-point shooting.
“We missed some tonight and so did they,” Boston College coach Al Skinner said. “But they made 19 foul shots and we only took 15. You’re not going to win many ball games when the other team takes more foul shots than you make.”
After being plagued by slow starts through their first eight games, the Terps played well in the first half, shooting 47 percent before halftime.
Ibekwe scored 15 of his 21 points in the first half, including 11 of the Terps’ first 13 points. His dunk closed the half and gave the Terps a 35-33 lead at the break.
The Terps resume play Dec. 23 against American.
“After last year, it was important to get a quality win,” Williams said. “We beat the No. 2 team in the country last year, but we weren’t able to sustain that level of play at any time during the year. Hopefully, this is a building block.”
Contact reporter Scott Clipp at clippdbk@gmail.com.
