Foul Trouble

With several Milford Mill teammates in foul trouble last night, Quante Toney knew it was time to take over.Toney scored all 10 of her team's overtime points to give the No. 9-ranked Millers a 63-54 victory at No. 18 Catonsville. She ended with 30 points and five assists."Chante [Alexander] had four fouls. Mandy [Clark] had four fouls," said Toney, "so I had to step up and be a leader. The way for me to lead the floor was to make good decisions and shoot good shots."In overtime, Toney hit both three pointers she took and was 4-for-4 from the free-throw line.

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. -- Maryland looked like a sure loser at halftime.Three fouls on Obinna Ekezie. Three fouls on Mike Mardesich. Three fouls on Lonny Baxter. A 23-10 rebounding advantage for North Carolina.If the Terps' comeback from a 22-point deficit at the Dean Smith Center two years ago was shocking, then last night's 89-76 victory certainly qualified as surprising, considering the way it transpired.Coach Gary Williams prefers man-to-man defense, but Maryland won by playing zone. The Terps prefer to play up-tempo, but their foul trouble forced them to stretch possessions, shorten the game.

ANAHEIM, Calif. -- Rodney Elliott stared at a copy of the box score and shook his head."You have to play a whole game, not half a game," he said.That's what cost Maryland in its NCAA West Regional semifinal against Arizona last night at the Arrowhead Pond."

COLLEGE PARK -- If Maryland's opener was a 100-meter dash, the Terps engaged in a wrestling match last night.UMBC talked about taking on its "big brother," and at times the Terps' 90-62 whipping of the Retrievers before 13,865 at Cole Field House resembled a pair of siblings pounding on each other in the backyard.There were 58 fouls, 33 on the visitors, who came within one whistle of having their starting five disqualified.No. 6 Maryland (2-0) might not have had as much fun as it did in last Friday's record-setting romp over Western Carolina, but whether it's a sprint or a war of attrition, the Terps are capable of dominating the mid-majors, as they ran their all-time record against the Retrievers (0-2)

Well, the Maryland Terrapins have gone and done it now.They have shown that it is reasonable to expect big things from them this season.That's the danger of pulling off wins as big as their upset of top-ranked North Carolina at Cole Field House on Wednesday night.They can't play that well every night, but they obviously can play better than they did while struggling to seven wins in their first 12 games, culminating in a 32-point loss to Duke 13 days ago.The team that beat Carolina in Wednesday's instant classic bore little resemblance to the team that had struggled; Wednesday's Terps were balanced, deep, tough on the backboards, smart in the clutch -- a handful for any opponent.

The more things change, the more they seem to stay the same.Not a terribly original thought, but here we are into mid-May and the NBA playoffs appear headed on precisely the exact track that they were on last year at this time.That is, another coronation of the Chicago Bulls as league champion. NBC analyst Matt Guokas has heard all the talk about how the Bulls seem vulnerable and prime to be taken this year, but they still look like winners to him."They've shown it's (the playoffs) been more of a struggle.

COLLEGE PARK -- He was alone with his thoughts in the minutes after the game, slumped up against a wall in a corridor outside the locker room, a rolled-up copy of the box score in his hand.Pale, sweaty and unsmiling, Gary Williams seemed a portrait of misery after Maryland's loss to second-ranked Wake Forest yesterday at Cole Field House.Then he started talking.And, surprise, he wasn't miserable at all."We can take this," he said. "I know we can take this."The Terrapins had just blown a 16-point lead at home and lost consecutive games for the first time this season.

COLLEGE PARK -- Depending on whom you asked last night, Maryland's Obinna Ekezie was most effective because he either played with his feet or with his head.The important thing was, Ekezie played.The sophomore center fouled out in three of the previous four games -- all losses. He had just two points and three rebounds in Saturday's 80-68 defeat at Clemson, and he had something to prove last night against Florida State.The statistics showed that Ekezie scored 15 points and grabbed 11 rebounds in Maryland's 73-57 win over the Seminoles at Cole Field House, but a couple of other numbers jumped out even farther.

It was midway through the third quarter, and Ciaran Lesikar's Glenelg team was not playing well against visiting Mount Hebron last Wednesday.The person sitting next to him had a lot to do with it."This is why we need you in the game," Lesikar said, leaning over toward senior Camey Brian, who had picked up two quick fouls -- her third and fourth -- in the third quarter. "This is why you can't get in foul trouble."Said Brian: "I knew what he was talking about. I'm like the spark of the team and he needs me on the court."

COLLEGE PARK -- The Maryland Terrapins probably would have beaten the nation's third-ranked team last night at Cole Field House if they hadn't missed half of their 18 free throws.And battled foul trouble throughout the game.And committed 20 turnovers, wasting the advantage of having forced 23 turnovers.As it was, they played Clemson down to the final seconds of a four-point loss in a game that buzzed with big-time electricity.Any complaints?Please, no."I'm not real good at losing," Terps coach Gary Williams said, "but I'm proud of our team.

Defending champion Paint Branch warmed up for last night's Class 3A girls state basketball championship game in jerseys with "BK2BK" on the back, but that seemed a bit premature to Jess Harlee and her undefeated No. 11 Fallston team. The Cougars used a big fourth-quarter surge and Harlee, who finished with 28 points, hit two clutch free throws with 3.3 seconds left as Fallston held off Paint Branch, 65-62, to finish 28-0 before a raucous crowd of about 3,500 last night at UMBC's RAC Arena.

CORAL GABLES, Fla. - Everything seemed to be going Maryland's way against Miami last night. The Terps started off shooting their way to a 12-point halftime lead that grew to as many as 17 midway through the second half. The small crowd at BankUnited Center was mute. Then it all fell apart. For the second time in a week, Maryland lost a game it had seemingly put away, falling, 62-60. This might have not been as stunning as losing to Morgan State at home, but it hurt just as bad and certainly had more significance coming in the Atlantic Coast Conference.

When Towson coach Pat Kennedy first looked at the three-game stretch that began with Colonial Athletic Association co-leaders Northeastern and George Mason and wrapped up against pre-season favorite Virginia Commonwealth, he said he knew his team had its work cut out for it. Last night at the Towson Center, Kennedy's worst-case scenario became a reality as the Tigers dropped their third straight, this one to the Rams, 78-71, before an announced 1,379....

RALEIGH, N.C. -- Brian Hodges said UMBC has watched the tape of Pittsburgh's 74-65 win over Georgetown in the Big East tournament "two or three times" to find some clues. But guard Jay Greene insisted yesterday the Retrievers will do more of what got them here. "We're just going to play our game, look to get out and run out there," Greene said. "We can definitely push the ball." Greene also said UMBC isn't awed by being here, playing today against one of the national powers. "This is the stage we want to be on. ... It lets us know where we stand.

Greivis Vasquez walked through the runway to the Maryland locker room and left others to observe the madness unfolding behind him. James Gist squatted under the basket near the Terps bench, hands clasped over his head, also unable to look. But they both had to hear all the whooping and hollering and slapping of sneakers at the opposite bench, where the Clemson players had swarmed to celebrate. There was no other noise to drown them out. Comcast Center was as silent and shocked and hurting as the players were.

For most of last night's game, Seton Keough's No. 1 girls basketball team pushed the pace, using its overall quickness as a key weapon against taller but slower No. 4 Arundel. However, when Asya Bussie, the Gators' 6-foot-3 All-Metro center, got into foul trouble in the third quarter, senior guard B.J. Williams led a switch in gears. "We just wanted to slow the pace of the game down and keep everybody controlled and in sync, just try to run the clock down and get an easy two points," Williams said.

Hassled relentlessly in the beginning, the Arundel girls basketball team found itself in a jam it couldn't quite recover from in the Class 4A state semifinal against Gaithersburg yesterday at UMBC's RAC Arena. Smothering defense from the Trojans, poor choices with the ball and foul trouble led to the end of the No. 6 Wildcats' season as they fell, 54-45, to end their season with a 22-5 mark. Gaithersburg will make its first state title appearance tomorrow when it meets Eleanor Roosevelt, a 66-49 winner over Springbrook in yesterday's other semifinal.

COLLEGE PARK -- There were at least two reasons for Maryland to struggle last night against Wake Forest, and they had to do with starting forwards who were on the bench with more than 15 minutes to play - one because of a one-game suspension, the other because of foul trouble. Factor in that the No. 23-ranked Terps were trying to rebound from back-to-back conference road losses, and the challenge seemed even greater. This time, they handled it. Virginia Tech@No. 23 Maryland Saturday, 8 p.m., Ch. 54, 1300 AM, 105.7 FM

MIAMI - The Miami Heat played yesterday's game in the same fashion as this series sets up: As an obligation. Showing it could dominate the Washington Wizards, but doing so only when necessary, the Heat took a 1-0 lead in the best-of-seven Eastern Conference semifinal series with a 105-86 victory at AmericanAirlines Arena. "Hopefully," coach Stan Van Gundy said, "we're staying pretty mature and pretty realistic." Considering the way this rivalry has gone, that could prove to be as taxing as anything presented on the court by Washington.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Mississippi State blinked, Duke didn't, and the Blue Devils earned another trip to the Sweet 16 the hard way last night. Hampered by foul trouble and poor shooting, Duke had to rely on the muscle of Shelden Williams and the scoring power of Daniel Ewing to get past the tenacious Bulldogs, 63-55, in the second round of the NCAA tournament. The victory sends the top-seeded Blue Devils (27-5) to Texas on Friday for an Austin Regional semifinal against fifth-seeded Michigan State.