Chestnut Hill, MA - The Terrapins (11-5) became just the fourth team this year to earn an ACC road victory as they dominated Boston College (10-8, 1-3) 73-57 from start to finish,  to improve their record to 2-1 in ACC play.

 

Boston College's confidence had been shaken coming into Saturday's game against Maryland, the Eagles had lost their previous two ACC games in a row and were looking to gain some momentum against the Terps.

Entering Saturday's game, Boston College had a 5-2 record against Maryland since joining the ACC in the 2005-06 season and with history in its favor took the court with intentions of continuing that trend.

But Maryland, entering its first of back to back ACC games would not let the second of the two games, slip from their hands as the overtime Wake Forest game did in its last outing.

Maryland played Saturday's entire game the way they should have played the overtime session at Wake Forest. By beginning the game with a sense of urgency, that early energy later evolved into outright dominance before a BC home sellout crowd of 8,606.

Maryland seemingly took advantage of every loose ball, every possession and every momentum swing. BC, on the other hand, seemed to be lost for most of the game. It was as if the team was in a haze that it could just not escape. Maryland's offense, led by Greivis Vasquez (17 points, 9 assists) was a well oiled machine, while BC's offense never seemed to ever flow and could never get on track.

BC's dysfunctional offense was aided in its chaotic appearance by the frenetic play of Maryland's pressing defense.

Maryland was overly prepared, on defense they seemed to know where the ball was going even though BC didn't seem to know where it was going. Maryland was able to create so many fast break opportunities that they were able to miss a handful of layups and still maintain a near 50% field goal percentage for the game. In fact, the Terrapins gave up an 10-0 run to BC at the end of the first half but still led 38-28 at intermission.

The second half produced more of the same as Maryland's fire burned just as intense as it did in the opening minutes and BC continued to flame out. Maryland ran every chance it got while sluggish BC was always a step behind.

Maryland junior forward Dino Gregory had a play very late in the second half where he pinned a BC layup attempt to the glass a la Dwight Howard and the Terps were off and running the other way. A couple of plays later, with about five minutes left in the game and up 25, sophomore guard Sean Mosley had the ball stolen from him but chased down the lone BC player on the fast break and blocked his dunk attempt from behind, and again, Maryland was off to the races.

Plays like these aided in Maryland's dominant fast break and points in the paint numbers, and quite literally, were the story of the game.

Maryland's next challenge will take them on a break away from ACC play but as losses to William and Mary and other out of conference schools have proven, it will not be an easy task. But the Terps will be at home versus Longwood on Tuesday and if they play half as determined as they did today they are sure to have another two-game winning streak on their hands.