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RECAP
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BOX SCORE
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) -- No time like the postseason for Terence
Morris to live up to preseason expectations.
"Right now, it's just time to play," Morris said with a shrug
after leading third-seeded Maryland past upstart Iona 74-59 on
Thursday night in the Midwest Regional.
The junior forward who had a rocky regular season after being
tagged as the favorite for ACC player of the year honors had 22
points and 12 rebounds as the Terrapins (25-9) ran all over the
14th-seeded Gaels (20-11).
|  | | Terence Morris, who led Maryland with 22 points, tries to get rid of the ball under pressure from Iona's Tariq Kirksay, left, and Phil Grant. |
"Instead of coming out like Cinderella, we came out like
Tinkerbell," said Iona coach Jeff Ruland, whose team fell behind
23-4 and never really recovered.
Maryland will face UCLA in the second round Saturday. The sixth-seeded Bruins beat Ball State 65-57.
Morris, who came on strong toward season's end and played well
in the ACC tournament, had 14 points and 10 rebounds by halftime,
when the Terps led 38-25.
"My team just fed off me in the first half," Morris said. "I
just wanted to set an example for the guys."
Off-guard Juan Dixon, who added 20 points, said the Terps relied
on Morris, the only upperclassmen in their starting lineup.
"We just knew we had to get him the ball. That's our
All-American. It starts with him and goes on down the line," Dixon
said.
The Terps' lead was 60-32 midway through the second half when
the Gaels made it respectable behind Tariq Kirksay, the player of
the year in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference who scored 20 of
his 24 points after halftime.
"We were in awe of them a little bit in the first half,"
Kirksay said. "They did a great job of stopping me."
That wasn't the case in the second half.
The Gaels pulled within 12 points on Kirksay's 3-pointer just
inside the two-minute mark but that was as close as they'd get.
"We didn't finish them off," Morris said, but Terrapins coach
Gary Williams understood why
"I think there's a tendency when you're young, you don't have
that killer instinct," Williams said. "I think that after 30
minutes we kind of stopped playing."
The Terrapins, who lost four starters from last season's 28-6
team, including point guard Steve Francis to the NBA, got even
younger when sophomore small forward Danny Miller sat out with a
sprained left ankle.
Miller was hurt in the final of the Atlantic Coast Conference
tournament, and his injury forced Williams to rely heavily on
freshmen Tahj Holden in big lineups and Drew Nicholas in
three-guard sets.
With freshman point guard Steve Blake running the Terps'
fast-paced offense, Maryland jumped out to a 23-4 lead before the
Gaels knew what had hit them.
Blake was penetrating at will and kicking the ball outside to
Dixon or finding bulky center Lonny Baxter (12 points, 11 rebounds)
underneath the basket.
Baxter, Holden and Morris were too much for the Gaels.
"Those three guys, they're difficult to stop all at once,"
Williams said.
Kirksay gave Iona a 2-0 lead, then scored just one more basket
the rest of the half. His five baskets keyed a 14-2 run that pulled
the Gaels to 62-46 with four minutes left.
Ruland said his strategy for the game was to "start off with a good prayer."
Thanks to Morris, the Gaels didn't have much of one
Thursday night.
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Maryland NCAA Team Report
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