Tucker leads Maryland past Wake Forest 74-55

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – Cliff Tucker scored a season-high 21 points to lead Maryland past Wake Forest 74-55 on Wednesday night.

Jordan Williams added 13 points and matched a season-high with 15 rebounds for his 10th consecutive double-double, and Adrian Bowie scored 12 points for the Terrapins.

Maryland (11-5, 1-2 Atlantic Coast Conference) shot 38 percent, hitting 26 of 68 attempts, outrebounded Wake Forest 52-42 and used a 15-0 spurt midway through the second half to take command and avoid an 0-3 start to league play.

Freshman Travis McKie had 13 points and 10 rebounds, and C.J. Harris added 10 points for the Demon Deacons (7-10, 0-2).

The only ACC team with double-digit losses, Wake Forest had 18 turnovers and had two field-goal droughts of at least 5½ minutes. They have lost two straight and seven of nine, and lost their first two league games for the first time since 2005-06.

Tucker reached double figures for the fifth straight game, topped the 17 points he scored against Pitt on Nov. 18 and finished one point shy of the career best he set against North Carolina in 2009.

Williams was 2-for-13 from the field but hit 9 of 14 free throws for the Terps. They led for all of about 3 minutes of this one and bounced back from a 71-64 loss at No. 1 Duke three nights earlier. Their rough road swing continues Saturday when they visit No. 7 Villanova.

Dino Gregory started the Terrapins' decisive run with a stickback with 11½ minutes left to make it 48-40, and Tucker pushed the lead into double figures to stay with a free throw with 11:21 left. Williams made it a 20-point game with a free throw with 9:34 left and Tucker capped the burst with another free throw to stretch the lead to 61-40 with 8:42 remaining.

The Demon Deacons went roughly 6½ minutes between field goals and missed nine consecutive shots during one rough stretch that bridged the halves. Still, they clawed back in the game by outscoring Maryland 14-6 early in the second half, pulling to 42-36 on Nikita Mescheriakov's layup off an inbounds pass with 14½ minutes left.

Mescheriakov hit a free throw to close to 46-40 with 12:03 to play, but Wake Forest didn't score again until Ari Stewart's layup made it 61-42 with 7:17 remaining. Wake Forest didn't get closer than 18 after that.

Maryland reeled off 10 straight points shortly before the break to build a 14-point lead. Tucker, who had 14 points before halftime, hit a layup with just under 2 minutes left to make it 34-20.

Some of the same old problems continued to plague Wake Forest, which turned it over 11 times in the opening 20 minutes and went without a field goal for the final 4½ minutes of the half.