Wake Forest

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. -- With sophomore stars Jerry Stackhouse and Rasheed Wallace, North Carolina is supposed to have the most potent two-man combination in the Atlantic Coast Conference. Maybe in the country.Quietly, Wake Forest's Randolph Childress and Tim Duncan have been their equal this season. Last night at the Smith Center, the two Demon Deacons were neither quiet nor equal.Childress finished with 26 points and Duncan had 25 points and 12 rebounds to lead ninth-ranked Wake Forest to a 79-70 upset of the second-ranked Tar Heels.

COLLEGE PARK -- A week ago, Wake Forest looked like the perfect setup team to bring to Byrd Stadium for Maryland's homecoming game.Despite their determined play, the Deacons were not even coming close against Atlantic Coast Conference rivals -- North Carolina, Florida State and Virginia averaged 33.6 points against them in one-sided victories.But last Saturday, Wake Forest underwent a metamorphosis at Vanderbilt, crushing the Commodores, 40-6. Suddenly, the Maryland alumni are not so confident of an easy time this weekend.

Wake Forest's Dave Odom did the standard post-game drill for any coach who has to deal with Saint Louis, the little team that could."Without fear of argument from our team," said Odom, "Saint Louis was the best defensive team we've played this year."That's fine, Dave, but the Billikens also had some awfully nice things to say about the iron curtain thrown up by Tim Duncan and the rest of your guys yesterday, when Wake Forest held Saint Louis scoreless for five minutes late in the game and pulled away for a 64-59 victory in the second round of the NCAA tournament before 12,816 at the Baltimore Arena.

Wake Forest took the ball from Maryland quarterback Sam Hollenbach three times Saturday night, but in the end, Hollenbach said that's all the Demon Deacons took from him on Senior Night. "No matter what, I'm going to look back on the season with a lot of good memories, a lot of fun memories and walking off our field here with a lot of joy," he said. "And that's something that can never be taken away." Despite struggling through back-to-back 5-6 seasons before this year, Hollenbach is a member of a winning senior class.

GREENSBORO, N.C. -Everything, it seemed, had gone so well for the Maryland women over the past month, as they won nine straight games and wrapped up their first regular-season Atlantic Coast Conference title in 20 years. So it must have been a bit of a shock to look up at the scoreboard in the second half of their ACC quarterfinal against ninth-seeded Wake Forest, a team they had blown out in the regular season, and see they were trailing by 12 points with slightly less than 10 minutes to play.

COLLEGE PARK -- How low can you go?Maryland has been doing the limbo during a four-game losing streak, dropping further in the NCAA total offense rankings. The Terps are averaging 151.3 yards during the slump, and their seasonal average is 224 yards, 109th among the nation's 111 Division I-A teams.Only North Texas (190.5) and Kentucky (155.2) are worse.Help is supposed to be on the way at Byrd Stadium on Saturday (2 p.m.), when Maryland plays its homecoming game against Wake Forest, but the Terps were in a similar situation two weeks ago. North Carolina State was ranked 102nd in total defense when it came here, but the Wolfpack rolled past the Terps, 34-8.

COLLEGE PARK -- The Wake Forest women's basketball team made up a 20-point second-half deficit at North Carolina on Monday night only to lose at the buzzer, and might have been expected to be emotionally flat last night against Maryland.Instead, it was the Terps who gave the desultory, listless performance in a 72-57 loss to the Deacons.In losing its fourth straight and fifth in the past seven games, Maryland (8-10, 2-6 in the Atlantic Coast Conference) shot poorly (37 percent from the field)

COLLEGE PARK -- Outspoken senior linebacker Kendall Ogle has five games left in his Maryland football career, and it's obvious he does not plan to go out with a whimper."

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. -- After wowing them in New York with a title in last week's ECAC Holiday Festival, the reality of Atlantic Coast Conference play set in last night for the Maryland Terrapins.The opening of the ACC grind began in sloppy fashion, as Wake Forest outlasted the Terrapins, 74-62, before 9,417 at the Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum.After shooting a respectable 49 percent in beating No. 12 South Carolina in New York, the Terps (6-4) shot 33.3 percent -- 26.5 percent in the second half -- against the Demon Deacons (6-2, 1-0 in the ACC)

WINSTON - SALEM , N.C . There were enough reasonsMaryland needed to leave Wake Forest with a win last night, but the overriding benefit, coach Gary Williams said, was confidence ? something that had begun to waver during a season that started with a swagger. Despite a 23-point lead that evaporated in the second half last night, Maryland remained resolute and hung on for a 79-72 win before 13,089 in Lawrence Joel Coliseum last night. It meant the difference between flying home with a 2-6 league record or amore respectable 3-5. It meant the first conference road win of the season, and a step in the right direction heading into Tuesday?