Maryland Defeats DePaul for Title

Terence Morris matched his career-high with 22 points as No. 2 Maryland defeated DePaul, 92-75, Monday night in the championship game of the BB&T; Classic at Washington.

But it was closer than the score indicates.

Maryland (10-0), which had its first close game of the season in beating No. 6 Stanford, 62-60, in the opening round, seemed on the way to another blowout, leading, 29-11, with 7:19 left in the first half.

But DePaul (5-2), which starts three freshmen, closed the half with a 24-14 run to get within 43-35. The freshmen scored all the points in the spurt.

The pro-Maryland crowd of 18,244 at the MCI Center waited for the run that would make the game like the first eight of the season that the Terrapins won by an average of 32.8 points, but the Blue Demons wouldn’t fold.

A three-point basket by Quentin Richardson, who finished with 28 points, had DePaul within 50-47 with 16:20 to play. And the Blue Demons, who had a five-game winning streak snapped, were within 57-53 with 14:19 left, but that was their last field goal for a span of 6:48. Maryland went on an 11-0 run with Morris, who was 10 for 11 from the field, and Juan Dixon scoring all the points.

“I thought we were a little tired,” Maryland Coach Gary Williams said. “Once we got the lead we had a little letdown. That score is not indicative of how close that game was.”

Laron Profit had 15 points for Maryland, while Steve Francis, the tournament most valuable player who had 24 points in the win over Stanford, added 14.

No. 6 Stanford 70, George Washington 56--Mark Madsen scored half of his 14 points during a five-minute stretch of the second half as the Cardinal (5-2) muscled its way to a victory in the BB&T; consolation game.

Stanford’s first win since Nov. 25 wasn’t nearly as easy as expected. Although the Cardinal led the entire second half, the margin was only five points with 9:25 left.

Yegor Mescheriakov scored 16 points on five-of-19 shooting for George Washington (3-3).

California 58, Coppin State 56--Geno Carlisle scored six points in the final five minutes to help the Bears (5-1) rally to beat Coppin State (1-6) at Oakland.

Sean Lampley, fourth in the nation in rebounding, scored 12 points and had 11 rebounds for Cal, which is off to its best start since the 1994-95 season.

No. 23 Arkansas 90, West Carolina 54--Pat Bradley scored 32 points, making eight of 12 three-point shots, as the Razorbacks (6-2) beat the defenseless Catamounts (1-6) at Fayetteville, Ark.