No. 5 Maryland 83, Wake Forest 49

1/3/2008 9:27 PM

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (AP) -Even with its head coach resting at home, Maryland easily won its Atlantic Coast Conference opener.

Crystal Langhorne had 15 points and 10 rebounds, and the fifth-ranked Terrapins beat Wake Forest 83-49 on Thursday night.

The Terrapins played without head coach Brenda Frese, who is expecting twins in March. Her doctors advised her not to go on road trips.

``We've been preparing for this all season,'' Langhorne said. ``Coach Frese and her staff did a great job just getting us ready. We knew that she'd be out sooner or later, and we're getting used to that fact now.''

With assistant coach Daron Park leading the team, Maryland dominated Wake Forest in the first half, holding the Demon Deacons to 20 percent shooting and outrebounding them 31-13 in racing to a 34-point halftime lead.

``Our kids did a great job the last three days preparing for this game,'' Park said. ``We set the tone early, especially in the first 20 minutes. That was the most dominating performance I've seen in quite a while.''

Laura Harper and Kristi Toliver also had 15 points each and Marah Strickland added 10 for Maryland (17-1, 1-0), which shot better than 51 percent in winning its seventh straight game.

Camille Collier scored 10 points and Alex Tchangoue had eight for the Demon Deacons (12-3, 0-1), who shot just 30 percent from the field in losing their 16th consecutive league game.

The Terrapins hit seven of their first 10 shots during an 18-2 run - capped by Strickland's 3-pointer with 15:13 left - to take command.

``Our defensive effort in the first half was tremendous,'' Toliver said. ``We wanted to come out of the gate with a lot of energy and intensity. The better our defense is, the better our offense plays.''

The Demon Deacons did not reach double-digit scoring until the 6:20 mark of the half, when Kem Wilson's jumper made the score 32-10.

``We just didn't play our game,'' Wake Forest forward Corinne Groves said. ``Our shots weren't falling, and that got everybody screwed up in the head. We were freaking out.''

But Toliver's 3-pointer kicked off a 15-3 run to close out the period, with Coleman nailing a 3 from the corner with five seconds left to put Maryland ahead 47-13 at the break.

``From the gate, they did a very good job of dictating the tempo,'' said Wake Forest head coach Mike Petersen, whose team led the ACC in scoring defense (47.1 points per game) and field-goal percentage defense (33.5 percent).

``They made us play bad. ... (But) we relaxed and made some shots in the second half that we didn't make in the first half.''

The Demon Deacons made a brief rally to open the second half, with Tchangoue's jumper capping a 6-2 run that cut the Terrapins' lead to 49-19.

However, Wake Forest's run sputtered and Maryland's lead was too big. The Terrapin's stretched its margin to 41 points twice in the half, the last at 82-41 on Toliver's three-point play with 2:15 remaining.

``I think we proved a couple things tonight,'' Petersen said. ``We proved that they're No. 5 in the country for a reason, and we proved that when we don't dictate how the game is played, we're going to have problems. Clearly, Maryland dictated how the game was going to be played.''