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Feb. 4, 2004
Recap?|?Box Score |? Video Highlights
MARYLAND COACH Gary Williams
I’m really proud of our guys. We’ve been through a tough stretch, as this wasour eighth game and we’ve played five in a row. We’ve had some tough thingshappen-we’ve had the lead in every loss with 10 minutes left in the game and wehadn’t been able to pull through in any of them, but tonight we did.
John Gilchrist was a great leader tonight. He would not allow us to lose thisgame tonight. John did a great job the first half with his points, but thesecond half he did a great job of getting the ball to others.
We played good defense tonight and did a good job containing Virginia’sthree-point shooting. We made some really good defensive plays down the stretchthat helped us win the game.
John Gilchrist was the key tonight with his points and rebounds but moreimportantly, his leadership led us tonight. He was focused.
On the steal at the end of the game:We got good help in there and we wereable to play a player-and-a- half there and not just go one-on-one. It’s prettyhard to stop someone one-on-one at the top.
VIRGINIA COACH Pete Gillen
It’s a game that I thought we could have won, but it was lost in severalareas. I have to give Maryland credit, they made the big plays when they had to.We lost the game in the first half when we got shook in their pressure. JohnGilchrist has 21 points and that hurt us. Twenty turnovers is not going to getyou a win in the ACC. Without the turnovers and their offensive rebounds wehave a few more points.
There were some positives tonight, but too many mistakes and turnovers wasthe difference.
Jason Clark did a nice job rebounding for us tonight. He had 13 boards andfive blocks-that’s great, but the bottom line is that we need to win. We needour veterans to lead us. It’s great when the freshmen step up, but our veteranshave to lead us.
On the turnover at the end of the game: We called a play for Todd Billet atthe end, but we didn’t execute it properly. Everyone wasn’t in the right spot.The point guard has to tell the rest of team what they are running. Todd’s acombo guard-he does his best at catching and shooting and not a pure pointguard. But he’s a terific player.
We have to keep the guys up. We’re 2-6 in the ACC and 12-7 overall. We haveto bounce back as we have a tough game on Saturday; we have to mature mentally.