ATLANTA --- Maryland hardly missed a shot in the second half Thursday at Virginia.
The Terrapins barely managed anything outside the paint three days later against Georgia Tech.
The formula in the two road games was dramatically different. The outcome was pretty much the same.
Maryland pounded away for a 74-63 victory at the Alexander Memorial Coliseum, collecting their third straight double-digit conference road victory and nosing above .500 in league play for the first time this season.
The Terps (14-7, 4-3 ACC) did so without one of the standbys of modern college basketball. After 407 straight games with a 3-pointer, Maryland didn't make one.
It didn't matter.
"I think we're a very versatile team," forward Jordan Williams said. "We can score in many ways. Last game, it was threes. Last game, we beat them with threes. This game, we didn't hit any threes? That's what I'm saying."
The Yellow Jackets (10-10, 3-4) aren't the most formidable bunch, though they've played well at home in conference play --- blasting North Carolina, Wake Forest and Virginia Tech in the last two weeks at the increasingly empty Thrillerdome. They're undersized, the result of Gani Lawal and Derrick Favors turning pro early and leaving a guard-centric lineup behind.
Of Georgia Tech's four players taller than 6-foot-5, one sat with the flu (Brian Oliver), one was out after an appendectomy (Nate Hicks) and a third dealt with foul trouble all night (Daniel Miller).
And so punishing the post made all the sense in the world, especially with Williams (21 points, 15 rebounds) eager to face a team incapable of draping three bodies on him as Virginia did in Charlottesville.
It was enough, though he received help from Sean Mosley and Dino Gregory and whoever else deemed it appropriate to join Williams in the paint. Cliff Tucker scored in transition. Pe'Shon Howard and Terrell Stoglin drove for layups.
No aid, though, was coming from the perimeter. And after a while, it wasn't so much by design as what made sense.
"After we got the lead in the first half, I think we got jump shot happy right there," coach Gary Williams said. "We're that type of team where I think sometimes if we don't hit outside shots early, it seems like it doesn't get there that night. We have to find ways to win and we were able to go inside and do a pretty good job at the free throw line for us."
The fascinating lesson of the past four days is the striking contrast between this and other recent bubble-dwellers at Maryland. The 2009 team, for instance, had a remarkably limited path to victory. There were only so many ways it could succeed thanks to various roster limitations --- notably the absence of a powerful paint presence. And still they won just enough to reach the NCAA tournament.
These Terps have a double-double machine in Jordan Williams and an impressive complement in Gregory, who continues to churn out solid work in his final season. Maryland's perimeter presence isn't consistent, but it does materialize at times and can be a difference on some nights.
Not Sunday. Maryland scored 48 points in the paint and 24 more at the foul line. Only Mosley's jumper just outside the post with 10:28 left prevented Maryland from getting nothing in the paint.
The Terps were 1-for-11 outside the post, and didn't connect on a 3-pointer for the first time since Jan. 7, 1999. Of course, the 24-for-52 work elsewhere on the court wasn't exactly stellar, either.
"We did not shoot the ball well tonight as jump shooters, and we didn't shoot well shooting layups, either," Gary Williams said. "It was pick your poison."
Still, Maryland had enough to topple yet another second division team away from College Park. It couldn't make a 3-pointer. Its lead acted as an accordion, shrinking from 13 points to four and then back up to 11 by the time many of the Thrillerdome patrons fled to the parking lot and a boisterous "Let's go Maryland" cheer echoed throughout the old building from a solid contingent of supporters.
The Terps didn't do everything on Sunday. But they won convincingly enough --- and far differently than they had just a few days earlier.
"We do whatever we have to do to win the game," Jordan Williams said. "We adjust to any type of defense. We take whatever they give us. It was important for us tonight to come out and just attack the basket and get it inside."
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