Perimeter

COLLEGE PARK -- For a half, the Notre Dame women's basketball team played third-ranked Maryland about as close to the scouting report as could be expected, taking away its interior game and transition offense, daring the Terps to win the game from the perimeter. Maryland took the dare and beat the 23rd-ranked Fighting Irish, 75-59, last night to earn a berth in tomorrow's Preseason Women's National Invitation Tournament championship game against No. 4 LSU at Comcast Center. LSU@Maryland Preseason WNIT final, tomorrow, 3 p.m.

Milford Mill established a pattern late this season of playing one bad game followed by two good games, so yesterday's regional final performance bodes well for the No. 10 Millers in the state tournament.The Millers (22-4) defeated Fallston, 66-60, for their second straight Class 3A, North Region title, but it took a blistering final minute and a half to do it.With 1: 56 left, the hosts found themselves in a 58-58 tie with the surprising Cougars. Then, the Millers finally took control, playing by far their best defense of the game.

1 The Ravens have to pressure Brett Favre, who is in a slum and at times forces passes. He has thrown 10 interceptions this year.2 The Ravens have to control the perimeter defensively because the Packers have not had an effective inside running game this season.3 The Ravens must control the clock. The Packers have the ability to make big plays, but not if the Ravens' offense controls the ball.Pub date 10/25/98

For Middletown, the crusade goes on. The Knights (25-1), regional final losers the past two years, were not about to let it happen again.Having Francis Scott Key for a title-round foe this time made it all the sweeter, and the Frederick County visitors rode some red-hot shooting (better than 50 percent from the floor and 20-27 on free throws) into the state tournament with a 73-64 conquest in the Class 2A West championship game.Middletown, whose only loss so far was to Key three weeks ago, moved on to next week's tournament at the University of Maryland Baltimore County, where it will play a semifinal Friday afternoon against Southern-Anne Arundel.

Manhattan's basketball team is short on size, but it can be a very dangerous opponent when its three-point tries are falling.They had been falling during a five-game winning streak launched after the Jaspers lost at home to Loyola on Jan. 11.Yesterday, the long-range shots stopped going in and the Greyhounds broke away from a defensive struggle in the final 10 minutes for a 75-62 Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference victory at Reitz Arena.With its attack sputtering most of the game, Loyola (9-11, 7-5 MAAC)

Navy women's basketball coach Joe Sanchez has prescribed special roles for each of his players. For example, it is junior center Laurie Coffey's job to score in the lane and freshman Mandy Stephan is given the green light to shoot from three-point range.Both Coffey and Stephan played their parts expertly in leading a spirited second-half rally against Mount St. Mary's yesterday to win the fifth Navy Classic championship game, 71-66.The Midshipmen trailed 55-45 with 7: 52 remaining when Sanchez called a timeout to change his defense from man-to-man to zone and encourage his players to take the open shot.

DURHAM, N.C. -- The new cast previewed during portions of a four-point loss at Maryland last month drew rave reviews here a week later in an impressive win over North Carolina and has since been a hit all over the Atlantic Coast Conference.Tonight, Duke will take its smaller, quicker lineup onto the floor of Cameron Indoor Stadium for a 7: 30 game against the team that helped inspire it, the Terrapins. The seventh-ranked Blue Devils will be looking to win their eighth straight ACC game. A victory will give Duke (22-6, 11-3)

Broader study of water needed, delegate writesI am writing to urge the Environmental Protection Agency to reconsider certain decisions recently made relating to remediation efforts at the Keystone Landfill in Adams County, Pa., near the border of Carroll County.I understand the EPA will ask the site owners to study static water levels in wells within a half-mile of the center of the landfill before pumping groundwater from several locations around the landfill perimeter.I believe the EPA should instead request that static water levels be measured in wells located within a mile of the perimeter.

After battling Randallstown's tough inside game last night, Fallston center Jessica Mook said she is ready for another showdown with unbeaten C. Milton Wright.Mook, a 5-foot-10 senior, faced double trouble against 6-1 center Katrina Johns and 5-11 forward LaTonya Chambers.Although the Rams duo dominated the boards, Mook scored 13 and complemented the Cougars' sharp perimeter game to boost No. 6 Fallston past the Rams, 64-43, in a Class 3A North regional semifinal.The Cougars (16-2) play host to C. Milton Wright, a 63-40 winner over Bel Air in last night's other semifinal, for the regional title tomorrow night at 7.The Harford County champion Mustangs already have beaten the Cougars twice -- by a total of five points.

After battling Randallstown's tough inside game last night, Fallston center Jessica Mook said she is ready for another showdown with unbeaten C. Milton Wright.Mook, a 5-foot-10 senior, faced double trouble against 6-1 center Katrina Johns and 5-11 forward LaTonya Chambers. Although the Rams duo dominated the boards, Mook scored 13 and complemented the Cougars' sharp perimeter game to boost No. 6 Fallston past the Rams, 64-43, in a Class 3A North regional semifinal.The Cougars (16-2) play host to C. Milton Wright, a 63-40 winner over Bel Air in last night's other semifinal, for the regional title tomorrow night at 7.The Harford County champion Mustangs already have beaten the Cougars twice -- by a total of five points.

COLLEGE PARK - Mike Montgomery is nothing if not blunt. The coach of California, which plays Maryland in the NCAA tournament's first round Thursday in Kansas City, Mo., was asked yesterday how his team's inside game is progressing. His response? There is no inside game. Period. "We just don't [have one]. There's nothing we can do about it," Montgomery told reporters during a conference call yesterday. "We just don't really have a guy that we can station at the post with his back to the basket."

Authorities are searching for a man convicted of first-degree murder who escaped from the Maryland Correctional Institution at Hagerstown yesterday morning by climbing over the prison's perimeter fence using clothing to cover the razor wire. The escape occurred between 5:30 a.m. and 6:30 a.m. Kanderlario Garcia-Ramos is serving a life sentence with all but 40 years suspended from a court case in Prince George's County in June 2008. Garcia-Ramos, 24, escaped from the prison while inmates were on their way to the dining hall for breakfast, authorities believe.

COLLEGE PARK - The preseason predictions can be put away like a pair of worn-out sneakers. They are not the only things that Maryland wants to bury when the Terrapins open the 2008-2009 season tonight against Bucknell at Comcast Center. "We don't want to make the same mistakes we made last year with teams that are not in our conference," junior forward Landon Milbourne said. "We've got to come out and play hard every single day." In a 19-15 season that ended with a second-round loss in the National Invitation Tournament, Maryland had several letdowns, including back-to-back home defeats in December to Ohio and American.

Most city residents haven't noticed the thin lines added to telephone poles in North Baltimore, creating a nearly invisible perimeter around the Johns Hopkins University's Homewood campus and surrounding neighborhoods. But for the Orthodox Jews who live within those neighborhoods, the wires create a symbolic wall, or eruv, which allows them to carry loads on the Sabbath within its borders. "It is the type of thing that anyone who doesn't need it won't notice," said Rabbi Binyamin Marwick of the Orthodox Union.

Host Century took its best shot at unbeaten Winters Mill last night. In the end, however, it was the No. 9 Falcons who delivered the knockout blow. Trailing by 10 midway through the third quarter, Winters Mill charged back with improved perimeter defense and clutch shooting down the stretch, surging to a 62-58 win that clinched the Carroll County title for the Falcons. "We didn't hit [shots] early, but we managed to do some things at the end," Falcons coach Bernie Koontz said. "I was proud of the kids for being able to manage the ball and not panic."

COLLEGE PARK -- For a half, the Notre Dame women's basketball team played third-ranked Maryland about as close to the scouting report as could be expected, taking away its interior game and transition offense, daring the Terps to win the game from the perimeter. Maryland took the dare and beat the 23rd-ranked Fighting Irish, 75-59, last night to earn a berth in tomorrow's Preseason Women's National Invitation Tournament championship game against No. 4 LSU at Comcast Center. LSU@Maryland Preseason WNIT final, tomorrow, 3 p.m.

Quarterback D We have come to expect these types of games from Steve McNair. He is erratic and inaccurate most of the game -- and downright lucky that some passes don't get intercepted. A lot of them are low, and the one thrown to Clarence Moore at the end of the first half was unforgivable. Running backs C Jamal Lewis looked slow and hesitant. The coaching staff has to make better decisions and get him off the field on passing situations. Lewis has poor hands. Backups Musa Smith and Mike Anderson hit the holes harder than Lewis and put pep into a lackluster running game.

Authorities were searching yesterday for a 20-year-old inmate who cut a hole through a fence to escape from a a minimum security prison in Jessup. Priscilla Doggett, a spokeswoman for the Maryland Division of Correction, said Morris Johnson was discovered missing during a routine count at the Jessup Pre-Release Unit about 9:30 p.m. Thursday. Johnson has been in jail since November 2004, when he received a seven-year sentence for unarmed robbery, she said. His last known address was in Berlin on the Eastern Shore, she said.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- To reach the Final Four, the shortest players on the Maryland women's basketball team may have to play bigger roles. Five-foot-nine junior guard Shay Doron, 5-7 freshman point guard Kristi Toliver and 6-1 freshman forward Marissa Coleman each have battled balky shooting streaks in recent games that have led to some closer-than-expected outcomes. Their importance will be magnified tonight when the second-seeded Terps meet No. 3 seed and defending national champion Baylor in an Albuquerque Regional semifinal tonight at 9 at Bob King Court at the University of New Mexico.

COLLEGE PARK -- For 7 minutes, 27 seconds last night at Comcast Center, Winters Mill ruled the world of Maryland high school boys basketball. Then, reality set in. Despite scoring 16 straight points during a lengthy third-quarter run, and turning a deficit that had been as many as 17 points into a brief lead, the No. 14 Falcons soon cooled down and succumbed to taller, more athletic Wicomico in a 70-61 loss in the Class 2A state semifinals. "At the end of the day, we missed some shots that we normally make," said Falcons coach Dave Herman, whose team is in just its third season at the varsity level.