By Bret Strelow
bstrelow@salisburypost.com
ATLANTA ó James Johnson went to the bench and covered his face with his jersey in the final minutes of Wake Forest’s 75-64 loss to Maryland.
The outcome could obstruct or enhance the vision Wake has for the remainder of its postseason.
Johnson totaled 20 points and 12 rebounds as the second-seeded Demon Deacons (24-6) fell to seventh-seeded Maryland (20-12) in an ACC Tournament quarterfinal Friday night.
The NCAA tournament looms next for the Deacs, who arrived at the Georgia Dome with six wins in their last seven games.
“It can be a little setback, but at the same time it can be an eye opener,” Johnson said. “It’s whatever our guys want it to be.
“If we want to just lay back and feel sorry for ourselves and cry about this loss, it’s going to be a setback. If we wake up the next day and practice as hard as we can and practice tough, practice like the team I know we can be, it’s going to be an eye opener.”
Johnson picked up his third foul midway through the first half, and Maryland held guard Jeff Teague scoreless for the first 26 minutes.
The Demon Deacons, primarily facing a packed-in zone, shot a season-worst 29.7 percent from the field and made three 3-pointers in a season-high 25 attempts.
“They just invited us to shoot 3s,” Wake guard L.D. Williams said. “We thought we were open, thought we were going to knock them down. It just didn’t work out for us.”
Shots in the paint and free throws accounted for 82 of the Deacs’ points in a 96-88 victory against Clemson in the regular-season finale.
Wake didn’t have more than 21 attempts from 3-point range in a game this season before playing the Terps.
“We could have went inside a little bit more, but they were so packed in there, it was really tight,” Wake coach Dino Gaudio said. “The guys that are good shooters for us, I want them shooting the ball. They just didn’t have a good shooting night.”
Wake trailed 36-31 at the break, and Maryland opened the second half with a 14-2 run that included back-to-back 3s from Sean Mosley and Landon Milbourne.
Gaudio burned two timeouts in the first four minutes of the half, and the Deacs cut their deficit to eight thanks to a 3-pointer from Ishmael Smith with less than five minutes to play.
Maryland senior Dave Neal answered with a 3-pointer that caused North Carolina’s Marcus Ginyard, a high school teammate of Neal’s, to rise from his seat behind the Terrapins’ bench.
“It’s tremendously difficult to deal with this situation right now,” Williams said. “We came into this thing as one of the hottest teams in the country. We just expected things to keep snowballing this weekend.”
Maryland, thinking a pair of victories in Atlanta would clinch an NCAA tournament berth, had T-shirts printed with the phrase “Win 2.”
The Terps beat N.C. State on Thursday night, and star guard Greivis Vasquez rushed toward the sideline to hug coach Gary Williams as the final seconds ticked away.
“We came to this tournament on a mission,” said Vasquez, who had 22 points, nine assists and eight rebounds. “I’m here to win this tournament. That’s all I’m worried about.”
Maryland advanced to a semifinal matchup with Duke, and Wake Forest will attempt to regroup while awaiting its NCAA tournament destination.
“I think we’ll get it back together,” Teague said. “I think we needed something like this, a loss to kind of crush us a little bit and get our act together.”