COLLEGE PARK — Senior guard Malcolm Delaney had said before traveling here with his Virginia Tech teammates that Maryland "might have the worst fans ever."
Predictably, Delaney was serenaded with boos from the student section before and during the game. But the best revenge for fans -- the reply they really counted on -- would have been a Maryland victory.
That didn't happen, as the Hokies scored the game's first 12 points and weathered a second-half Maryland run for a 74-57 victory. Delaney, meanwhile, scored 19 points. It was a game both teams needed to add a quality win to their NCAA tournament credentials. But it ended as Maryland's worst defeat, by one point, at Comcast Center, which opened in 2002, and its most lopsided loss of the season in terms of point differential.
Maryland (11-7, 1-3, Atlantic Coast Conference) trailed by as many 17 before Cliff Tucker scored 11 quick points -- he had just two before halftime -- to get the Terps to within 61-53.
But the Hokies pulled away again. They made it 66-55 on an inside shot by Victor Davila and soon had the lead back to 17.
Maryland had earlier come within single digits in losses to five teams -- Duke, Pitt, Illinois, Villanova and Temple -- that have been ranked in the Top 25.
"You wonder where that comes from," Maryland coach Gary Williams said. "The thing that I can do as a coach is challenge the team to play against Clemson at 2:30 on Saturday. Hopefully, that's a one-game thing. I'm not real happy right now."
Maryland lost in part because leading scorer Jordan Williams was held to 11 points. He got only three shots, making one, in a first half after which Virginia Tech led, 40-29.
Williams, who had 11 rebounds, tied Len Elmore's team mark of 12 straight double doubles. Elmore attended the game as an analyst for ESPN and said he was "proud" of Williams' play this season.
"In the first half it was tough because they were playing such a packed zone," Jordan Williams said. "It's a tough loss, but we're not going to let it affect our whole season."
The Terps looked young -- they have six newcomers this season -- against Virginia Tech's senior starters Delaney, Jeff Allen and Terrell Bell.
Maryland often put its most athletic outside defender, Cliff Tucker, on Delaney, the ACC's fifth-leading scorer. But it was sophomore guard Erick Green who did much of the damage for the Hokies.
Green converted nine of his first 12 field-goal attempts as the Hokies raced to a 53-36 lead. The student section, as loud as usual at the start, had grown relatively quiet and restless by then.
Green led the Hokies with 24 points.
It was the third straight ACC game in which the Hokies had taken a big lead. They had lost to North Carolina on Jan. 13 after blowing a 31-15 first-half lead.
Maryland shuffled its lineup for the game, starting Tucker and freshman guard Pe'Shon Howard and keeping Adrian Bowie and Terrell Stoglin on the bench at the start.
But the Terps missed five of their first six shots and quickly trailed. Virginia Tech entered the game leading the ACC in scoring defense (61.2 points per game) and 3-point defense (29.5 percent).
Gary Williams said Stoglin had been late for a team function and that figured in the decision not to start the freshman.
Delaney's comments had been particularly provocative because he is from Towson Catholic, making him well-known to Terps fans. His comments recalled an incident in which Allen made an obscene gesture to Maryland fans after he fouled out of a game at Comcast Center two seasons ago. He was suspended for one game by Virginia Tech.
Maryland trailed by 11 after a first half in which the Terps surrendered five 3-pointers. It was 10-0 after Delaney hit a 3-pointer and held three fingers aloft as he ran past the Maryland fans on the way downcourt.
Bowie was the only Terp to score in double figures in the half. He had 10 points.
The Terps get only one day off -- a rare scheduling occurrence in the ACC -- before hosting Clemson on Saturday.
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