The Terps did everything Chris McCray is known for last night. They played solid defense, shot above 90 percent from the free throw line and were calm in the face of adversity.

It’s only one win. But nobody can deny last night’s road win against Georgia Tech is still a statement from this team. Chris McCray is great, but we’re not done.

For a team accustomed to having high expectations, and for a group of seniors that have had them heaped on ever since they stepped onto the Comcast hardwood, maybe all it took was a bunch of doubters to bring out the team’s best.

But this team has always played its best against the odds. Refer back to its pair of Duke upsets. Or the season before, when they knocked off the top three ranked teams to win the ACC tournament.

Nobody can deny the Terps’ chances of making the NCAA tournament, although fairly good at this juncture, took a serious blow with McCray’s dismissal.

They were down, but as always, not out.

Senior Nik Caner-Medley kept them in. He put up a career-high 33 points, but more importantly gave the Terps confidence that they had a scoring option not wearing No. 13. More importantly, he played with determination and leadership, taking a vicious elbow to the nose and an intentional foul on a breakaway. Yet, he reacted as calmly as, well, McCray.

A couple weeks ago, Caner-Medley sat in front of his locker and said they didn’t have one leader.

But with the team’s best offensive and defensive weapon watching the game from his South Campus Commons room, Caner-Medley made his case for the job.

And the job of restoring pride to a program that is dealing with losing for the first time in a long while and the negative stigma caused by several off-court blunders, seems a bit more manageable.

It’s just one game, and the Terps still have a lot of unanswered questions and negative trends to reverse. Travis Garrison still has a court case pending, and the team will have to play this well without McCray for the rest of the season in order to win. But last night was a breath of fresh air amidst a steady flow of stink.

And, oh yeah, the Terps are on a three-game win streak, tied for second in the ACC standings and still ranked No. 18. So maybe things aren’t all bad after all.

Contact reporter Ryan Mink at sports@dbk.umd.edu.