Maryland Crushes Florida State
Laron Profit had 21 points, 10 rebounds and four steals and No. 5 Maryland overwhelmed Florida State for a 93-69 victory in the Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament quarterfinals Friday.
Profit scored eight points in a 24-12 run that closed the first half and sent Maryland (26-4) to its fifth consecutive berth in the conference semifinals.
The second-seeded Terrapins shot 56 percent and harassed eighth-seeded Florida State (13-17) into 23 turnovers, helping Maryland improve to 24-0 when leading at halftime.
Steve Francis added 13 of his 20 points in the second half for the Terrapins. Maryland, winning its seventh consecutive game, also got 18 points from Lonny Baxter and 10 from Danny Miller.
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The Terrapins, who shot a combined 60 percent while defeating the Seminoles twice in the regular season, didn't need to be that accurate Friday against a team coming off Thursday night's overtime victory against Clemson. Florida State appeared to run out of steam after eight minutes against Maryland, which had a first-round bye.
Florida State's Terrell Baker, who had 28 points to lead the Seminoles on Thursday night, missed his first eight shots against Maryland. He wound up with 12 points on 4-for-14 shooting.
Damous Anderson had 14 points and Delvon Arrington 11 for the Seminoles, who had snapped a seven-game losing skid with their first-round victory.
The score was 16-16 before Maryland closed the half with the decisive run.
Francis hit a jumper in the lane and assisted on another basket as Maryland opened the surge by scoring 12 consecutive points. Profit took over from there, scoring three times on slashing moves and adding a pair of foul shots as the Terrapins went up 42-30 at halftime.
Maryland scored the first seven points of the second half, and Florida State was unable to get closer than 17 the resof the way. The Terrapins spent much of the final 15 minutes sharpening their dunking skills and pushing their lead as high as 34.
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