A Win, but Maryland Waiting to Celebrate

Duke is out of the NCAA tournament and Kentucky has been sent back to its old Kentucky home.

Things are moving along nicely for the Maryland Terrapins, on a quest to win the national title that eluded them last year.

A night after nemesis Duke was ousted, Maryland took another step to the Final Four with a 78-68 victory over Kentucky in an East Regional semifinal game before 29,633 at the Carrier Dome.

No. 1-seeded Maryland (29-4) will play No. 2 Connecticut in Sunday’s regional final. It will be the teams’ second meeting. Maryland was a 12-point winner in a nonconference game at Connecticut.

Before the teams could meet again, Maryland had to take care of Kentucky first. And the Terrapins were about as workmanlike as you could get.

Kentucky (22-10) entered the game as the team with the heritage, winners of seven national titles, but the schools are on different tracks now.

After the victory, Maryland players did not walk off the court as if they had defeated one of basketball’s most storied programs.

The Terrapins, in fact, did not celebrate much at all.

“It’s a veteran team,” Maryland Coach Gary Williams said. “Sometimes I wish they were more emotional. Every team has its identity. This is this year’s team.”

You could call “resolve” what Maryland was displaying. This is basically the same team that went to the Final Four last year and blew a 22-point first-half lead to Duke in a semifinal game.

Not even victories over Kentucky are to be celebrated.

The job is not done.

“In this situation, you have to hold all the emotion for the next game,” Williams said. “You can’t waste it.”

It appeared that Kentucky, reborn in the tournament after a turbulent season, might give Maryland a run. The score was tied at 53 with 10 minutes left, but Kentucky’s play down the stretch resembled the tattered team it had been until NCAA tournament victories against Valparaiso and Tulsa made it feel good to be bluegrass again.

Kentucky squandered chance after chance.

The Wildcats scored only two baskets in the last six minutes, but that was only half of it.

Maryland was up, 68-63, when Kentucky buckled.

Keith Bogans missed the front end of a one-on-one free throw. Tayshaun Prince missed a three-point shot. Bogans missed another front end. Prince missed again on a drive.

Chuck Hayes finally scored with 1:53 left to make it 70-65, but the mistakes kept coming. Jules Camara was called for traveling. Bogans dropped a pass out of bounds. Gerald Fitch missed a three-point shot.

It’s the kind of stuff that can turn a close game into a 10-point loss.

“We can’t take those back,” Prince said of the mistakes. “Those were just plays we didn’t make in the end and it cost us.”

Prince, who scored 41 points in last weekend’s victory over Tulsa, was held to 17 in his final collegiate game. He made only six of 16 shots. Maryland forward Byron Mouton did the bulk of the stellar defensive work against Prince, with Drew Nicholas helping out in relief.

Prince knew his last game would feel like this.

“Yeah, it hurts,” he said.

The final minutes became a microcosm of the Wildcats’ season, which was wracked with suspensions, transfers and inconsistent play.

Kentucky Coach Tubby Smith was happy to salvage what he could in recent weeks.

“We’ve really taken on a different attitude and dimension,” he said.

Maryland’s attitude has been rock steady for months. Friday, four players scored in double figures against Kentucky. Juan Dixon led the Terrapins with 19.

The only Terrapin who struggled was guard Steve Blake, who made only two of nine shots and finished with four points.

You sensed Blake couldn’t wait to get back on the court.

“Personally, I played bad,” he said. “I have to play better the next game. It’s good to see that even though I played bad the other guys could step up.”