Recap: Maryland vs. Houston
Sports Network | March 20, 2010
Spokane, WA (Sports Network) - Freshman Jordan Williams was red-hot from the field and provided a huge boost on the glass, recording career-highs with 21 points and 17 rebounds, and the fourth-seeded Maryland Terrapins defeated the 13th-seeded Houston Cougars, 89-77, in a Midwest Region matchup.
Williams, who came in averaging 9.2 points and 8.3 rebounds, recorded his first 20-point game of the season for the Terps (24-8), who will take on last year's NCAA runner-up Michigan State in the second round on Sunday. Landon Milbourne added 19 points and seven rebounds in the win.
"I wanted to let the game come to me instead of force shots and rush," Williams said. "Tonight, I think my teammates did a good job of getting me the ball. It was a team effort. It wasn't just me. My teammates gave me the ball, they trusted me."
ACC Player of the Year Greivis Vasquez chipped in a balanced effort with 16 points, seven rebounds and six assists for Maryland, which has won 10 consecutive first-round matchups in the NCAA Tournament, dating back to 1997.
Aubrey Coleman, the nation's leading scorer coming into the game, tallied 26 with eight rebounds for Houston (19-16), which improbably captured the Conference USA Tournament title with four consecutive wins. Kelvin Lewis contributed 24 points in defeat.
Houston ended the first half on an 8-2 run, with an acrobatic half-court three-pointer by Adam Brown bringing the Cougars to within 39-37 at the buzzer.
Lewis' jumper to start the second half brought Houston even, but Maryland went on a 16-5 blitz, recording seven straight successful possessions.
Adrian Bowie's three-pointer capped the surge for a 55-44 cushion three minutes into the half.
Houston never got closer than six the rest of the way, as the Terps had an answer for each Cougar scoring spurt.
"I feel that we knew they would go on a run, and I told the guys to just crash and get the rebound," Coleman said. "And they caught us off guard with it. But I feel that we made a decent run, but every time we were making a run they would either get a rebound or a call, and it just sucked the air out of us."
Lewis hit two consecutive shots -- one from three-point range -- to make it 55-49, but Vasquez responded with a layup, and Maryland held a 65-53 advantage with 11 1/2 minutes left after a Dino Gregory free throw.
"I thought that Jordan and Landon did a great job helping us out in the paint," Vasquez said. "So I'm proud of Jordan and Landon and Dino because they fought extremely hard tonight. That was the difference of the game."
Houston got back to within nine with five minutes to play following a pair of Lewis free throws, but Milbourne quickly hit two shots, the latter converted into a three-point play for an 83-69 advantage, sealing the outcome.
The two teams played close for most of the first half until a 10-2 spurt by Maryland gave the Terps a 37-29 lead on a Milbourne jumper with two minutes remaining.
Houston quickly answered to cut its deficit to two at halftime.
Maryland has taken two of the three all-time meetings with Houston...The Cougars have not won an NCAA Tournament game since the days of Clyde Drexler, Hakeem Olajuwon and "Phi Slamma Jamma" in 1984...The Terps are in the NCAA tourney for the 14th time in 17 years and have won eight of their last nine games overall...Adam Brown and Zamal Nixon provided 11 and 10 points, respectively, for Houston...Eric Hayes scored 11 for Maryland, which dominated the rebounding battle, 50-29.
