First-round games are never easy ? even for the fans.
So Thursdayafternoon at the ESPN Zone at the Inner Harbor, fans of the University of Maryland men?s basketball team let out a huge sigh of relief as their favored Terps, seed No. 4 in the Midwest Region, got off to a winning start in the NCAA Tournament with a 82-70 victory over 13th-seeded Davidson.
“I was a little nervous, you know, sweating it out,” said Michael Smith, a die-hard Terps fan and resident of Baltimore.
Surviving an upset bid by Davidson, the Terps? season is guaranteed for one more game ? this Saturday in Buffalo.
“I?m going to call out of work,” said Patrick Doam, a Maryland student.
The believers of an improbable late-season run began falling in line after seven consecutive wins in the Atlantic Coast Conference late in the regular season. Fans of the black and red who were excited about the team?s chances to win several games in the “big dance,” and after a victory that saw numerous lead changes and a resilient late game effort, locals are believing that anything is possible.
“I?d rather have Butler,” Doam said of Maryland?s next game. “But if the Terps play the way they can, we can beat anyone and move on to play Florida.”
Early on, the red-clad throng at the ESPN Zone feared the worst for their team, as scrappy Davidson, led by freshman Stephen Curry, the son of former professional basketball player Dell Curry, hit circus shots from all over the court. Throughout the course of the action, many lamented their luck about “always playing a team that can shoot threes.”
At halftime, with Maryland up 44-43, many turned their attention away from the possibility of Round 2 for the Terps, and focused it on Round 2 in their mugs. By the time the ball was unbounded to start the second half, the crowd was ready to go.
Throughout a rough-and-tumble final 20 minutes the Terps seized control, hit their free throws down the stretch and came away with the 12-point win.
That?s not to say there weren?t moments of trepidation. Eric Bishop, a student at Frostburg State University from Columbia who watched the game at the ESPN Zone, was petrified that he might have jinxed his team by not watching the game with seven friends at a house back on Maple Street in his college town. Bishop was so nervous at one point, he even brought out his cell phone for an emergency call.
“I told my friend [who I watch the games with] that I had to hear his voice to make sure we were going to win,” Bishop said.
And win they did ? but not without keeping Bishop, and rest of Terrapin Nation, on edge.
“I?m sweating right now,” he said after the game.
