COLLEGE PARK -- Anything you can do, I can do better.
That was the message Joe Smith sent Adonal Foyle late in the first half of Maryland's 113-53 massacre of Colgate before 12,639 at Cole Field House last night.
Foyle, the 6-foot-10 freshman from the Grenadine Islands in the Caribbean who shunned the upper echelons of Division I for a spot in the nonscholarship Patriot League, showed his immense potential in a sequence under the Terps' basket, as he blocked a shot by Smith, then stopped Exree Hipp's follow attempt from the left side.
Ten seconds later, Colgate freshman Seth Schaeffer put up a 15-footer from the right side, and Smith, the top freshman in the nation a year ago, hustled over to swat the ball into the stands.
Smith ended up with better numbers than Foyle, and a superior supporting cast, as the nation's 11th-ranked team used spurts of 16-0 and 12-0 in the last eight minutes of the first half to cruise to a 51-23 lead, its biggest halftime spread of the season.
The Terps had their first 50-point lead with 10 minutes to go, at 84-34, and scored 100 points for the third straight game, the first time that has happened in a Maryland season. It was the third-highest margin of victory in Terrapin history.
Fueled by its full-court pressure and relentless work on the offensive board, Maryland (6-1) showed that it wasn't looking ahead to tomorrow's game at the Baltimore Arena against No. 5 Massachusetts, the team it beat to reach the Sweet 16 of last year's NCAA tournament.
With 12 points and 15 rebounds, Smith had the 23rd double-double of his career. Foyle showed more skill at the defensive end, as he didn't get a basket in the first half, but finished with five blocks and altered another half-dozen to go with 11 rebounds and nine points.
Smith nearly didn't make it to tomorrow's date with Massachusetts and Marcus Camby, as he and Colgate guard Tucker Neale scuffled after Smith grabbed a rebound under the Red Raiders' basket with 9:18 to go. Both players were called for technical fouls. Neale was ejected, while Smith avoided that fate with an assist from Duane Simpkins, who pulled him away from the tangle.
An ejected player is required to miss his team's next game.
The Terps showed something old and something new, as all five starters scored in double figures for the third time this year and coach Gary Williams sent his team out in new uniforms. Johnny Rhodes had 17 points, seven rebounds and six assists; Hipp had 17 points and four rebounds; Keith Booth had 15 and nine, and Simpkins had 12 and five.
Colgate (0-6) was the 35th straight nonconference foe to fall to Maryland at Cole, and the Terps have averaged more than 100 points in that streak.
The game plan of Colgate coach Jack Bruen proceeded nicely for 12 minutes, as the Red Raiders were determined to use the shot clock and not let the Terps score easy baskets off the break. Derek Hyra's three-pointer trimmed Maryland's lead to 23-19 with 7:38 to go in the half.
But by the time Colgate scored again, the Terps had gone on a 16-0 run that was reminiscent of the spurts with which they routed Loyola and Bucknell earlier on this four-game homestand. The Foyle-Smith shot-blocking exhibition came in the midst of the Terps' roll, which concluded with Rhodes stealing an inbounds pass under his basket and scoring for a 39-19 bulge with 3:15 to go in the half.
Maryland scored three times on offensive rebounds in the final 1:29 of the half to push the difference to 51-23, its biggest halftime lead of the season. Colgate's 26.7 percent shooting (eight of 30) and 16 turnovers were the best evidence of the Terps' full-court pressure.