The Cavalier daily :: Monday, March 6, 1972 :: University of Virginia Library

The coin toss came
yesterday morning in the office
of ACC commissioner Robert
C. James in Greensboro, and
the Terrapins walked off with
their second victory over the
Cavaliers within 24 hours.
They won the right to face
last-place Clemson in the
opening game of the
tournament.

The Cavaliers will face
sixth-place Wake Forest in
Thursday's second game, and,
should both Maryland and
Virginia win as expected, the
Wahoos would get a chance to
avenge Saturday's defeat in the
tourney's semi-final round on
Friday.

"I think we're in the right
bracket to get to the finals,"
said Cavalier coach Bill Gibson
yesterday afternoon, displaying
confidence that his team can
top Maryland in a rematch.

Cavalier Cold Spell

Somebody put a lid on the
Cavalier basket for the first
half of the second period
Saturday night, and, despite a
fine Cavalier comeback sparked
by red-hot Barry Parkhill, the
Wahoos could not overtake
Maryland.

Trailing by three at the
half, the Cavaliers did not get a
field goal until Scott
McCandlish scored with 11:25
left in the second half, by
which time the Terps, who
controlled the backboards all
night, had built up a nine-point
lead in the slow-tempo contest.

In the closing ten minutes,
the Wahoos quickened the pace
and almost overtook the
Turtles, but the comeback
effort fell short, as Darrell
Brown dropped in six foul
shots in the last two minutes to
insure the Maryland win.

During the cold spell, the
Cavaliers could not buy a
basket. Frank DeWitt, who
finished one-for-11 from the
floor, missed three layups, and
McCandlish missed a wide open
drop-in, with defender Len
Elmore sprawled on his back
on the floor below.

The Cavaliers used the same
offensive pattern that worked
so well in the December win
over the Terps, based on ball
control and isolating a man in
the center for the easy shot.

Defense Leads Terps

A defense-oriented Terrapin
lineup, combined with cold
Cavalier shooting, made the
strategy largely ineffective,
however, as the Cavaliers
threatened seriously only in
the game's closing minutes
when they abandoned the
ball-control offense and ran
with Maryland.

Brown and Bob Bodell were
inserted in the Maryland lineup
for regular starters Jap Trimble
and Jim O'Brien who played
only six minutes, while Trimble
never saw action.

The main weapon of the
Maryland defense, however,
was control of the boards, as
the Terps out rebounded the
smaller Cavaliers 42-15, and
often allowed the Wahoos only
one shot, while getting four or
five at a time from short range.
Tom McMillen led the
rebounders with 13, followed
by Brown with 12 and Len
Elmore with eight.

McMillen led the Terps with
17 points, but never had to
display his outside shooting
skills. All six of his field goals
came on layups, four of them
after he had grabbed offensive
rebounds.

The Terrapins controlled
the inside, as they made only
one shot all night from more
than ten feet.

Mr. Gibson attributed the
loss to two key factors, the
inability of the Cavaliers to
make the easy shots and the
dominance of the backboards
by Maryland.

"Our plan was to isolate
and control the tempo,"
remarked the Wahoo coach,
"but we couldn't put the ball
in the hole when we needed it.
We couldn't get ahead to
dictate the tempo of the game.

"Maryland has real good
rebounding and a tremendous
amount of talent," he
continued. Mr. Gibson denied
rapports that he had made
statements criticizing the
Maryland coaching staff.

"If Jim Hobgood had been
healthy, we would have played
a running game," he explained.
Hobgood has been bothered
recently by a heel injury.

Maryland coach Lefty
Driesell used the Wahoo
slowdown as evidence that his
team should be in the top ten,
and implied that those who
vote in the polls should wise
up.

Comeback Falls Short

It looked for a few minutes
late in the game as if the
Cavaliers had enough to
overtake the Turtles and hand
them their first loss of the year
in Cole Field House, but a
comeback effort ran out of
steam.

With Maryland ahead 34-26
at the ten-minute mark,
Parkhill, who had been held to
nine points until that time, got
a chance to start shooting
when Mr. Gibson decided to
open up the offense.

Parkhill then showed why
he was the only unanimous
All-ACC pick, as he scored on
four straight jump shots to pull
the Wahoos within two at
36-34. Supported by his
teammates' picks and screens,
he sank a five-footer, then a
ten-footer, and followed with a
pair from 20-feet.

A Lanny Stahurski jump
shot made it 37-36 with 6:29
left, and it appeared that the
Wahoos had the momentum
necessary to win, but Maryland
stalled the ball from 6:04 until
3:34 when confronted with a
zone defense, and destroyed
the Cavalier momentum.

Parkhill had 21 points and
was the only Cavalier in double
figures.

Mr. Gibson gave the
Cavaliers a rest yesterday, but
will have them back on the
court this afternoon preparing
to meet Wake Forest, whom
they have already beaten twice.
Neither of those wins, nor any
of the other 18, mean anything
now though, for the season
starts all over again Thursday
afternoon in Greensboro.