They had the University of Massachusetts right where they wanted yesterday afternoon at the Baltimore Arena. The momentum had shifted so much in favor of Maryland that you'd think the court had tilted toward the Terrapins.
They had a one-point lead with less than five minutes left after being down by as many as 10 in the first half. They had the fifth-ranked Minutemen in huge foul trouble. They had a sellout crowd of 13,332 creating a din of inequity.
And then they relaxed.
"You take a deep breath, instead of clawing and grabbing like you were doing before," Maryland coach Gary Williams would say later. "We didn't score a couple of times. But you have to give them credit when we took the lead and they came back. Good teams can do that."
That momentary lapse by the 11th-ranked Terps gave the Minutemen new life and Massachusetts barged through the opening. The Terps watched as what would have been a tremendous comeback victory vanished into a disheartening 85-74 defeat.
Despite a 30-point performance by All-America center Joe Smith, Maryland (6-2) lost because it missed 17 of 44 free throws, 40 of 63 field-goal attempts and all but one of its 14 three-point shots. ,, Forwards Exree Hipp and Keith Booth and point guard Duane Simpkins were a combined three of 20 overall.
"Obviously, we're disappointed with our free-throw shooting," said Williams. "We tried to go inside and get [Marcus] Camby and [Lou] Roe and people like that in foul trouble, and we were able to do that. When you're shooting 70 percent [from the line], you think that's the way to win the game, but it didn't work out that way."
The victory was revenge for Massachusetts, which had nearly nine months to think about its upset loss to Maryland in the second round of last season's NCAA tournament in Wichita, Kan. And the Minutemen won in much the same way as the Terps did in Kansas -- by hitting some big three-point shots and by outworking their opponent.
Massachusetts (3-1) won despite Roe, its leading scorer and rebounder, being in foul trouble most of the afternoon -- he fouled out with a little more than seven minutes remaining. The Minutemen hung on despite losing senior point guard Derek Kellogg to fouls with 2:49 to play. Camby fouled out with 46.1 seconds left, but by then Maryland was just about done.
"It's a reflection of our motto, we refused to lose," said Roe, whose season-low six points were nearly 21 below his average. "The guys never gave up when things weren't going our way. We got a big lift from the guys off the bench."
Roe could have been talking about former starter Mike Williams, who led Massachusetts with 18 points and hit a number of key three-pointers. Or it could have been Camby, who, despite being sick with the flu all week, came off the bench for 15 points, 11 rebounds and five blocked shots.
Or he could have been referring to former reserves Dana Dingle and Edgar Padilla. Dingle started because Camby was sick, finishing with 11 points and six rebounds and holding Hipp to six points. Padilla hit all three of his three-point shots in a 12-point, six-rebound performance. Donta Bright of Dunbar added 12 and also had five blocked shots.
"I like their depth," said Gary Williams, who got a combined 13 points and eight rebounds from reserves Mario Lucas and Wayne Bristol, but nothing else from his bench. "They play aggressively. They show up for 40 minutes."
Despite coming back nearly the whole game -- Maryland trailed by 10 with 8:33 to go in the first half -- the Terps seemed to be in control when a pair of free throws by Smith finished off a 10-2 run that gave them a 71-70 lead with 4:36 left.
Massachusetts coach John Calipari called time out, and told Mike Williams that he needed to start looking for his shot, as he had done in the first half. He also told his front-court players to double-team Smith whenever he touched the ball, and told his guards to challenge Maryland's perimeter shots.
"I think the key was when we doubled-down on Joe, because we made them take outside shots," said Mike Williams.
Said Maryland guard Johnny Rhodes: "I think we stopped going with the play to Joe. I think we should have kept going to him. Hopefully, we would have fouled out the whole team. Unfortunately, we didn't."
Not only did the Terps miss their shots, but the Minutemen made theirs. A 10-footer by Camby gave Massachusetts a 72-71 lead. After Smith was tied up by Dingle, giving the Minutemen possession, Williams scored in the lane.
A free throw by Booth pulled Maryland within 74-72 with 2:49 to play, but Bright retrieved Williams' air ball for a layup. Simpkins missed a three-pointer, and, after the teams traded turnovers, Bright tipped another miss by Williams and was fouled, making both ends of a one-and-one. Simpkins, a near 90 percent free-throw shooter, then finished off a lousy afternoon by missing a pair of free throws.
"I couldn't hit anything -- free throws, layups, jump shots," said Simpkins, who had scored a career-high 20 points in last year's upset of Massachusetts and wound up sobbing in the Maryland dressing room yesterday. "Those last four minutes were pretty tough."
The defeat likely will not cost Maryland as many spots in the Top 25 as its first loss to Arizona State in the Maui Invitational did. But Gary Williams said he hopes that his players will take as much from losing to Massachusetts as they did from beating the Minutemen in March.
"I hope the players feel that sense of being there and not getting it," said Williams. "This is a great game to play in December. We have to be able to respond in a better way and get better, so if we have the opportunity again we can win."
NOTES: Rhodes finished with 16 points and eight rebounds, and his three steals made him the school's all-time leader with 176, one ahead of Walt Williams. . . . The Terps play Towson State tomorrow night at home.