Rebounds

Dirk Nowitzki scored 34 points, Jason Terry equaled a season high with 33 and the Dallas Mavericks handed the visiting Washington Wizards their fifth straight loss, 119-103 last night. The Wizards, the Eastern Conference's worst team at 14-49, led by 10 points in the first half before the Mavericks (38-25) rallied to tie it at halftime. Nowitzki had nine rebounds and a season-high seven assists, and Antoine Wright scored 16 points for Dallas, which was playing without Josh Howard. The Mavericks' starting forward has a sprained left ankle.

The final rebounding stats for yesterday's game between Randallstown and Southern-Baltimore showed the Bulldogs with a slight edge.But Tony Darden proved to be the biggest factor for Randallstown.The 6-foot-5 junior had 10 rebounds to go along with 19 points, leading the host No. 11 Rams past the No. 9 Bulldogs, 70-62, in the Randallstown Tip-Off Classic championship.Junior point guard Demon Brown was top scorer for Randallstown (3-0) with 20 points. Charles Scott led Southern (2-2) with 15 and Emil Curry scored 12.The Rams were out-rebounded, 25-23, but 13 were on the offensive end. Darden finished with five offensive rebounds.

WASHINGTON - The Maryland Terrapins came out focused, energized and even a little angry, and George Mason simply was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Still smarting from Tuesday's loss to Wisconsin, the 12th-ranked Terps took it out on the Patriots, putting them away early in a 78-54 victory in the first game of the BB&T Classic at MCI Center. The score was not indicative of how one-sided the game was, as Maryland (4-1) scored 18 of the first 20 points and led by as many as 37 with 11 minutes to play.

ANAHEIM, Calif. - Lonny Baxter couldn't play. At least that's what you might have heard after Maryland's three-point squeaker over George Mason in the team's NCAA West Regional tournament first-round game in Boise, Idaho. The junior center made only one of four shots, scored two points and didn't manage more than six rebounds against a vastly undersized defense. The sky wasn't falling on Baxter and fellow inside star Terence Morris, who also struggled. It was already buried under earth.

It came down to the boards and Towson Catholic's dominance, along with a pair of 14-year-old freshmen, was the difference last night as the No. 4 Owls (21-5) posted a 57-46 victory at No. 7 Dulaney. Towson Catholic's marquee junior, 6-foot-7 Carmello Anthony (seven rebounds) got into foul trouble and scored 13 points, low for him. Freshmen Jamal Smith and Darren Hopkins, who scored 13 and nine points, respectively, picked up the veteran. The visitors outrebounded the host Lions (19-2)

Westminster forwards Chris Prior and Jarrod Randall gave Century a lesson in the importance of rebounding last night. Prior had 15 points and 20 rebounds and Randall pitched in with 16 points and 13 rebounds as they ruled the boards and led No. 18 Westminster to a 73-61 victory over visiting Century. The 6-foot-4 forwards were simply too much for the smaller Century team. Prior, a senior, repeatedly pulled down tough rebounds in traffic. Randall, a junior, did much of the same as both helped the team run its fast break and get numerous second chances on offense.

Adrian Gross pulled down a county season-high 26 rebounds, setting the pace last night for No. 16 Southern to dominate the paint and defeat the No. 20 Old Mill boys basketball team, 71-61. The host Bulldogs (12-5 overall, 9-2 league) broke their tie for second place in Anne Arundel County with Old Mill (11-6, 8-3). They both trail unbeaten Annapolis. Southern earned its ninth straight victory as it guns for its first appearance in the county championship game since its inception in 1996.

After his New Jersey Nets opened the season by beating the Washington Wizards, 95-85, behind Vince Carter's 21 points, coach Lawrence Frank praised all of his players and talked about how guys who didn't even get in helped by being "supportive." Sure, Coach. Eventually, Frank got around to acknowledging last night what everyone knows about these new-look Nets, saying, "Vince was the hub for us." Carter - whose teammates elected him the Nets' captain, Frank announced before the game - scored 15 in the second half.

If the adage that "defense wins championships" is true, the Broadneck girls basketball team may have found the ingredient to go a long way in the Class 4A playoffs. With 6-foot-5 senior center Rachel Hack patrolling the lane and a bevy of forwards crashing the boards, the visiting Bruins clamped down on No. 19-ranked North County, 47-38, in an East Region quarterfinal in Glen Burnie last night. It was the third meeting this season between the county rivals. The Knights won, 58-53, on Dec. 15, while Broadneck returned the favor in a 41-39 contest almost four weeks ago. The Bruins, the region's No. 6 seed who improved to 16-7, out-rebounded third-seeded North County 39-28, and the Drexel-bound Hack avoided foul trouble to swat away seven shots and force the Knights into a perimeter game.

Navy's basketball team has been clearly on the rebound since launching the season with three straight losses, but last night it hit a record-setting gait in that department. The Midshipmen shattered the school record with 71 rebounds, an amazing 37 of them off the offensive boards, and had little trouble routing Liberty, 79-53, at Alumni Hall for their ninth victory in the last 10 games. Liberty, which had beaten both Richmond and Virginia Tech on the road, simply couldn't cope with Navy's superior size, desire and hustle and was never really in the game.