Cavaliers frustrate Terrapins

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CHARLOTTESVILLE -- It wasn't enough to display two strikingly different personalties last week, an abysmal one against Miami and an admirable one against Clemson.

The Maryland basketball team just had to cram all of its inconsistency into one night.

The bad Terrapins -- those with a fondness for first-half fouling foibles, a tendency for turnovers and a proclivity for defensive deficiency -- showed up long enough to dig themselves a insurmountable hole.

Their better selves -- those who rebound, shoot smart and mercilessly harass opposing ball-handlers -- arrived just a bit late and didn't loiter nearly long enough to overcome it in a 103-91 loss to Virginia.

"I don't know what it is," senior guard D.J. Strawberry said. "One day we pass the ball great, the next we come out and take dumb shots. That's just something that happens. I guess when we were getting down, people panicked and tried to do it themselves. We're a team, and we have to do it together, and that's the only way we're going to win games."

Maryland (15-4, 1-3 ACC) -- bedeviled by a matador defense in the first half, an absent offense in the second and deep foul trouble in both -- lost for the first in seven games against the Cavaliers.

The Terps' first visit to glistening John Paul Jones Arena was also the opening of a stretch featuring four road trips in five games. Their down-and-up-and-back-down performance could prove a lousy harbinger for the rest of the three-week stretch, which also includes visits to No. 23 Virginia Tech, Florida State and Wake Forest.

"I don't want to say much about it," Maryland coach Gary Williams said of his team's inconsistency. "In the ACC this year, you have to play well every night."

Mamadi Diane scored a career-high 26 points, and Sean Singletary added 25 for Virginia (10-6, 2-2), which improved to 9-1 at its new home. Also telling was Jason Cain's workmanlike 13-point, 16-rebound effort as the Cavaliers drubbed the Terps 48-36 on the boards.

Of even greater significance to Maryland was its rapidly growing foul total. While five Terps reached double figures in points, just as many had four fouls by the under-eight media timeout.