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Harris, No. 17 Virginia hold off Maryland

Feb 11, 2014 - 6:14 AM Charlottesville, VA (SportsNetwork.com) - Joe Harris led with a game-high 19 points as No. 17 Virginia held on to defeat Maryland, 61-53, at John Paul Jones Arena.

Malcolm Brogdon supplied 14 points and Akil Mitchell scored 13 points and pulled down six rebounds for the Cavaliers (20-5, 11-1 ACC), who have put together an eight-game ACC winning streak for the first time since 1982-83.

"Joe [Harris] was really good in the second half. He hunted down shots. I really thought the ball screen defense in the second half was terrific," Virginia head coach Tony Bennett said.

Virginia has won the six straight games for the first time against Maryland.

Seth Allen had 15 points and Dez Wells contributed 12 points and four assists for the Terrapins (14-11, 6-6), who have dropped two of their last three.

"I thought our group played really well and executed when we needed them to," Maryland head coach Mark Turgeon said. "There is a reason Virginia is 11-1 in the league."

Trailing 26-25 at the break, Virginia took the lead after Harris hit back-to- back triples to make it 33-29 less than five minutes into the second half.

Wells connected to draw the Terps even at 35-all, but Justin Anderson exploded through the lane and dropped off a pass to Darion Atkins for a thunderous slam in the midst of a 9-0 run that gave Virginia a 44-35 lead with 9:23 to go. Brogdon capped the burst with a short-range jumper.

The Cavaliers upped their edge to 11 points after London Perrantes drained a jumper to cap an 8-2 spurt with five minutes remaining.

Nick Faust's trey off the left wing and his one-handed slam pulled Maryland within four, 54-50. Evan Smotrycz had a chance to get the Terrapins within one, but his try from long distance off a wide-open look bounced out of the basket with 1:19 to go.

Harris, Brogdon and Anderson combined for seven points from the charity stripe down the stretch and Allen hit a three for Maryland to account for the final score.

Wells brought the Terrapins within one, 23-22, with a trey just under five to go in the opening stanza.

Charles Mitchell's layup gave Maryland a 26-23 edge, but Brogdon lobbed a pass off the inbounds from half-court to Mitchell, who took the ball and slammed it with one second left, making it a one-point game heading into the half.

Game Notes

Virginia's win gave the program its third straight 20-win season for the first time since 1991-93 ... Maryland had been 11-1 when leading at the half coming into the contest... Virginia shot 47.1 (24-of-51) from the field ... Both schools are back in action on Saturday, as Maryland will travel to Duke and Virginia heads to Clemson.