Terps Defeat Cal, American Falls to Villanova
Written by DCist Contributor Brett Gellman. Brett had this post ready much, much earlier today, but we failed to get it posted on time. Apologies all around.
Yesterday's first round NCAA action featured essentially every team from the area with Maryland, American, VCU, Radford, and Morgan State representing the DMV on Thursday.
Only one school, however, was able to advance to the second round as the 10th-seeded Maryland Terrapins (21-13) defeated the California Golden Bears (22-11) of the Pac-10 conference, 84-71, in Kansas City yesterday afternoon at the Sprint Center.
Maryland controlled the lead throughout the majority of the game, with the Terps' experienced backcourt of Greivis Vasquez and Eric Hayes combining for nearly half of the team's scoring output.
Dave Neal, the team's lone senior, had another outstanding outing as the Terps' undersized center netted 15 points along with an assist and steal.
Cal entered the contest as the nation's top three-point shooting team, but the buckets just weren't falling for the Golden Bears on Thursday. The team was only able to hit seven out of its 24 attempts behind the arc while committing 14 turnovers. Forward Theo Robertson led the team with 22 points, while guard Jerome Randle struggled shooting a below average 14 points.
Maryland now advances to the second round to face second-seeded Memphis tomorrow afternoon with a scheduled tipoff at 3:20 p.m.
The American Eagles (24-8), who returned to the NCAA Tournament in their second consecutive appearance, put on a thriller at the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia as they led the third-seeded Villanova Wildcats (27-7) for nearly 30 minutes.
American's starting guards, Derrick Mercer and Garrison Carr, combined to shoot for a total 39 points, 18 of which came from Carr behind the arc. Unfortunately, the Eagles' lack of depth was ultimately exposed as their bench contributed a mere two points throughout the entire contest. In fact, Mercer played all 40 minutes of the game, and was visibly fatigued towards the end.
Villanova got hot during the ending minutes of the game and was able to pull away in order to avoid a first round exit for Jay Wright's team. 'Nova outshot the Eagles in the second half, with Dwayne Anderson and Dante Cunningham scoring 25 points apiece.
It was one of the loudest games in terms of crowd noise last night, as 'Nova had a clear home advantage while American traveled well given the proximity from D.C., and even gained some supporters from the UCLA/VCU crowd who were waiting for their upcoming game.
Villanova advances to the second round to face the sixth-seeded Bruins with a 1:05 p.m. tipoff.