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Maryland withstands outburst by Curry, beats Davidson

Mar 15, 2007 - 9:52 PM BUFFALO, New York (Ticker) -- Freshman Stephen Curry's precocious perimeter play was not enough to overcome Maryland's inside presence.

Fourth-seeded Maryland withstood 30 points by Curry and rallied for an 82-70 victory over 13th-seeded Davidson in the first round of the NCAA Tournament's Midwest Region.

Mike Jones scored 17 points to lead six players in double figures for Maryland (25-8), which used its huge advantage in size to end a 13-game winning streak by Davidson (29-5).

In the draw for the first time since 2004, the Terrapins will face fifth-seeded Butler in Saturday's second round.

"I'm happy for our seniors," Maryland coach Gary Williams said. "We didn't go to the NCAA last year. These guys made it their mission to get to the Tournament and now that we're here, it's great to get a win."

Among freshmen, only Texas's Kevin Durant had a higher scoring average than Curry's 21.2 points. For most of the game, Curry looked a lot like his father, former NBA sharpshooter Dell Curry.

Curry made 9-of-21 shots - including 5-of-14 3-pointers - and had the Wildcats thinking upset until they faded in the final 10 minutes.

"I think we played with a lot of energy and in the last 12 minutes shots weren't falling and we had loose balls go the other way, so I don't think it was fatigue," Curry said. "There were a couple of bad bounces here and there and a couple of rebounds we should have had."

"He was coming out of transition and getting some open looks in the first half," Maryland guard D.J. Strawberry said. "In the second half, we played man-to-man. He was tiring me out just as much as I was tiring him out."

Curry opened the second half with a 3-pointer and added a bucket to trigger a 9-0 burst that gave Davidson its largest lead at 52-44 with 17:32 to play.

"Curry's for real," Williams said. "He's really good. They say he's small, but he's about 6-2; that's big enough. He shoots when you're not ready. He's got range, he can go to 24 feet."

However, Maryland did not panic and ultimately wore down its smaller foe, which uses a three-guard lineup.

"We just made sure we were going to do everything we could to win the game and it turned out OK," Williams said. "This team has come from tough situations all year. It's not the first time we've had to do that."

A layup by Bombale Osby, who scored 11 points off the bench, gave the Terps the lead for good at 60-59 with 9:53 to play and triggered an 11-4 spurt.

A bucket by Curry cut the deficit to 71-68 with 3:31 left, but the Wildcats did not score from the field again. Ekene Ibekwe split a pair of free throws before Jones scooted around a screen and drained a 3-pointer for a 75-68 advantage with 2:10 to go.

"We knew there was a lot of time left on the clock," Jones said. "At the same time, we knew all it took was a couple stops on defense."

The Southern Conference champion, Davidson's upset bid ended in an empty hailstorm of 3-pointers. The Wildcats were 10-of-37 from the arc - including 3-of-17 after halftime - and shot 34 percent (24-of-70) overall.

Strawberry and James Gist scored 12 points each, Ibekwe added 11 and 10 rebounds and freshman Grievis Vasquez contributed 10 points for Maryland, which held a 54-35 advantage in rebounds and a 46-22 edge in points in the paint.

"It was big for our guards to get in there and rebound because we knew they shot a lot of threes - the ball was going to come out long," said Strawberry, who had eight rebounds. "Our guards rebounded, our big men were rebounding, it was a team effort."

"You can look at how they beat us in the paint, but that's not the total responsibility of our frontcourt players," Davidson coach Bob McKillop said. "We always have five guys with responsibilities when the ball goes into the paint."

Davidson's Jason Richards had 11 points and seven assists. But he made just 4-of-15 shots - including 1-of-8 from the arc - and committed five turnovers.