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No. 1s prepare for battle

MARYLAND 90, UCONN 82: The Terps pull away in the final minutes to reach their second straight Final Four.

©Associated Press
March 25, 2002

SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- Back and forth, back and forth, until Steve Blake spoke up and came through.

Scoreless and pulled from a tight East Region final because of poor defense, the junior guard still wanted a shot.

So when Maryland coach Gary Williams barked instructions to get the ball to All-American Juan Dixon with less than a minute left, Blake cut Williams off and announced he would take care of things.

With 25 seconds left Sunday and the shot clock nearing zero, Blake sank a 3-pointer for his first basket of the game, leading top-seeded Maryland to a 90-82 victory over Connecticut and a second straight trip to the Final Four.

"That shot was the biggest one I could hit for this team," said Blake, who had missed his only two attempts. "At the last timeout, I told the guys to look for me. I was just kind of freelancing. I knew if I hit the shot it would be tough for them. I just got a good look as the shot clock was winding down."

That put Maryland up 86-80 and was the clinching blow in a tremendous display of basket-for-basket play. There were eight ties and seven lead changes in the final 13 minutes.

"It's hard when the game is back and forth like that," UConn forward Johnnie Selvie said.

"Every time we would get the lead, they always answered, and that's what good teams do. Every time they got the lead, we answered. It was just two very good teams going to war."

Lonny Baxter had a season-high 29 points, and Dixon scored 27 for Maryland, which reached 30 victories for the first time.

Second-seeded UConn stayed in the game thanks to sophomore Caron Butler, who had 26 of his 32 points during a second half in which neither team lead by more than three from the 14-minute mark until the final 36 seconds.

"We have tough guys. We didn't think we would lose this game," Williams said.

"We're going back. We want to do something this year."

Maryland lost to national champion Duke in last season's Final Four.

Just as there was no wild on-court celebration after their region semifinal win over Kentucky, the Terrapins were matter of fact after beating Connecticut.

For a while.

Williams arrived at the postgame news conference wearing a Maryland warmup outfit, because his suit and tie were soaked during the postgame celebration.

"Our guys were accused of not being very emotional after Kentucky," Williams said. "They were very emotional in our locker room. That's why I'm wearing this attire."

Maryland scored the final eight of the first half to take a 44-37 lead, UConn's biggest deficit of the tournament to that juncture, but Butler brought the Huskies back.

"Caron Butler carried that team in the second half, but we stayed strong and focused," Dixon said. "We didn't want this to be our last game. We strapped down on defense when we had to and made free throws."

Baxter, the region's most outstanding player, was 7-for-12 from the field and 15-for-18 from the free-throw line and had nine rebounds. He had 24 points and 10 rebounds in the teams' first meeting this season, a 77-65 Maryland victory Dec. 3.

"I just stepped up to the line and tried to make every free throw I took," Baxter said. "We just know how to win and we stayed with it to the end."

The Huskies, who had won 12 in a row, kept this one as close as a game can be.

Butler, who had a career-high 34 points in a second-round victory over North Carolina State, played 13 minutes in the first half because of foul trouble.

He hit his first three 3-pointers in the second half, the last of which gave the Huskies a 54-53 lead with 13:11 left and set up the wild ending.

"We needed someone else to make a play besides Caron," Connecticut coach Jim Calhoun said. "The kids were standing around watching him, waiting for him to make a play."

Baxter gave Maryland the lead for good with a hook shot that made it 81-79 with 2:08 left.

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