Gaither showed why it's the defending champion of the Saladino Tournament.
Hakim Warrick and the Orangemen nearly blew a 16-point lead before hanging on to beat Maryland 72-70 Saturday in a matchup between the last two NCAA champions.
Warrick had 26 points and nine rebounds for fifth-seeded Syracuse.
The game was the third between two the previous national champions in NCAA Tournament history, and the first since 1994 champ Arkansas beat 1993 title winner North Carolina in the 1995 semifinals.
This one looked like it might be a blowout when the Orangemen (23-7) took a 54-38 lead with 13:01 left. But the Terrapins (20-12), who had won six in a row, didn't give up.
D.J. Strawberry's 3-pointer cut the deficit to 59-49 with 7:32 left, and layups by Chris McCray and Jamar Smith made it 61-54.
Josh Pace's jumper pushed the lead to 69-60 with 1:58 left, but Maryland whittled the margin to one, fell behind 69-64 then with 7.5 seconds left trailed 72-70 after Gerry McNamara made one free throw.
Maryland had one last chance but Strawberry missed a runner, got the loose ball and missed again in the lane at the buzzer.
"The bottom line is that we played a great 38 minutes and overcame a bad two minutes," Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim said.
McNamara wasn't up to his first-round performance when he hit nine 3-pointers and scored 43 points in a win over Brigham Young. He didn't make his first basket, a 3-pointer of course, until early in the second half.
McNamara finished with 13 points on 2-of-11 shooting.
"It's not like I didn't have it," McNamara said. "They played tough defense."
Travis Garrison and Jamar Smith led Maryland with 16 points apiece.
After McNamara's 3, Warrick scored 10 of Syracuse's next 14 points, and Pace hit a short jumper to give Syracuse its biggest lead at 54-38, but Maryland wouldn't go away.
Neither team shot well in the first half but Syracuse used runs of 10-0 and 9-0 to take a 32-22 halftime lead. Warrick had 13 points in the half.
McNamara was 0-for-5 from the floor in the first half, including 0-for-4 from 3-point range, but had three assists.
Syracuse shot 32 percent in the half and Maryland shot 26 percent. The Terrapins committed 11 turnovers in the half to Syracuse's four.
TEXAS 78, NORTH CAROLINA 75: Tar Heels coach Roy Williams was worried about the Longhorns' big front line and deep bench.
Seems he knew what he was talking about.
Royal Ivey had 17 points and 11 players scored for third-seeded Texas (25-7). The Longhorns had 36 points in the paint and its reserves outscored sixth-seeded North Carolina's 34-7.
North Carolina (19-11) held Brandon Mouton to 12 points on 4-of-12 shooting, but couldn't contain the rest of the Longhorns, particularly inside. Rashad McCants had 27 points and Jawad Williams 17 for the Heels.
North Carolina shot 38 percent to end Roy Williams' first year at his alma mater in the second round.
North Carolina didn't have a second-half field goal until Jawad Williams hit a jumper from the free throw line at 17:04 and the Tar Heels missed 10 of their first 12 shots with Texas pushing its lead to 57-44.
The Tar Heels rallied and had a final chance, trailing by three after Raymond Felton hit a 3-pointer with 11 seconds left and the Longhorns' D.J. Tucker made 1 of 2 free throws, but McCants shot an air ball on a leaner at the buzzer. It appeared his foot was on the 3-point line anyway.
Both teams seemed to enjoy a little freedom after facing slow-it-down teams in the first round; Texas had trouble with Princeton's deliberate style before pulling away in the second half, and North Carolina did the same against Air Force.
@987$temp$$STPT$Paper:+Date: 3/21/04+Page: 16C+Section: SPORTS+Byline: DON JENSEN+Headline: Gaither picks up from last year+
Junior right-hander Caleb Graham, the event's most valuable player in 2003, fired a four-hitter and Brendan Domaracki drove in four runs with a homer and a double as Gaither beat Middleton 12-2 in a game that was halted in the fifth inning by the 10-run rule.
Graham turned in the best pitching effort of the three games at Gaither.
In earlier action, Armwood used an eight-run sixth to beat Robinson 13-7, and Plant took advantage of five Wharton errors to post a 6-2 victory.
After giving up a run on two hits in the top of the first, Graham (2-0) settled down to go the distance. He didn't allow a hit in the final three innings, struck out five and walked one. Fifty-three of his 81 pitches were strikes.
The Cowboys (3-6), seeking their third Saladino championship, gave Graham plenty of support with a seven-run outburst in the bottom of the first. Domaracki, a left-handed hitter planning to attend Stanford in the fall, fueled the rally with a home run to centerfield. It was his fourth homer of the year and third in the past three games. Domaracki also had a two-run double in a four-run third.
Braulio Pardo's run-scoring single in the fifth ended the contest. Evan Ashley also had a pair of hits for Gaither.
Middleton (4-5) hurt itself with four errors and six walks, five resulting in runs.
Scott Slein's three RBIs and two hits in the eight-run sixth inning enabled Armwood (8-2) to overcome Robinson (4-5). The Knights had scored three times in the top of the inning to take a 7-5 lead before the Hawks rallied. Armwood sent 12 batters to the plate and produced seven of its 15 hits. Slein doubled and singled in the inning to cap a three-hit day.
The game was delayed 25 minutes when Robinson second baseman Philip Platz injured his back in a collision. He was taken to a hospital as precaution.
Plant (8-2) got a combined five-hitter from three pitchers as it came back from a 2-0 first-inning deficit. Wharton (4-5) committed five errors that led to three unearned runs.
Winner J.R. Dunaway (3-1) went four innings, followed by Johnny Taylor and Nick Debacker.
Plant leftfielder Chris McCurdy came within one hit of tying a tournament record with a 4-for-4 performance, including a double.
