Demon Deacons Felled By A Profit
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Wake Forest isn’t undefeated anymore, and Maryland will no longer be lightly regarded.
Laron Profit made a 3-pointer at the buzzer and the 11th-ranked Terrapins withstood two second-half rallies by No. 2 Wake Forest to pull out a 54-51 victory Sunday in Winston-Salem, N.C., snapping the Demon Deacons’ 25-game home winning streak.
“Something like this certainly has the ability to bring you back to center, back to earth,” said Wake Forest coach Dave Odom, whose team almost lost at home Wednesday night to Virginia before pulling out a four-point win. “If that is what happens, then it was a good loss. We have to make it a good loss.”
The defeat for the Demon Deacons (13-1, 5-1 ACC) left topranked Kansas as the nation’s only unbeaten team.
Maryland, meanwhile, picked to finish eighth in the ACC preseason poll, is now one-half game behind league-leading Clemson.
“Everyone (else) has excuses to make like we’re this tremendous fairy-tale team, we’re on a fairytale ride, this is a cartoon,” Profit said.
“I don’t think people will really have confidence in this team all year,” the sophomore added. “The key thing is we realize that and we’re not threatened by that at all. We’re secure in the fact that we know we’re a good basketball team. If we approach the game the right way, it doesn’t really matter what people think.”
The Terrapins (15-2, 5-1), led by Sarunas Jasikevicius’ 19 points, blew a 19-point first-half lead.
Wake Forest’s Tim Duncan notched his 23rd straight double-double with 26 points, 13 rebounds and nine blocked shots.
(1) Kansas 73, Connecticut 65
At Hartford, Conn., reserve guard Billy Thomas scored eight points during a late burst and the Jayhawks (18-0) remained unbeaten with a victory over the undermanned Huskies (11-4).
Kansas (18-0) then closed it out from the free-throw line by going 8 for 8 over the final 53 seconds.
That capped a second half that saw the Jayhawks make all 16 of their free throws. They were 18 of 19 foul shots for the game.
(10) L’ville 85, (23) Texas 78 (OT)
At Austin, Texas, Eric Johnson barely beat the clock with a 3-pointer at the end of regulation, then hit two crucial free throws with 23.4 seconds left in overtime as the Cardinals (15-1) erased a 15-point second-half deficit and beat the Longhorns (9-5).
(14) Xavier 68, Temple 64 (OT)
At Cincinnati, Gary Lumpkin scored seven of his 11 points in overtime, including a pair of free throws with 17 seconds left that gave the Musketeers (12-2, 3-1 Atlantic-10) a victory over the Owls (8-5, 2-2).
Lenny Brown led Xavier with 22 points.
(18) Michigan 79, Iowa 71
At Ann Arbor, Mich., Michigan’s big men were ineffective, so the Wolverines relied on their three guards for a victory over Iowa, snapping the Hawkeyes’ eight-game winning streak.
Louis Bullock had 19 points, Brandun Hughes 18 and Travis Conlan scored four of his seven down the stretch for the Wolverines (13-4, 4-2 Big Ten). Andre Woolridge led Iowa (14-4, 5-1) with 25 points.