Maryland hung on to advance in the NCAA tournament with a 86-83 victory over UTEP in the opening round at the Pepsi Center in Denver, Colo., Thursday.

"This is pretty typical on the way we play," said Maryland's coach Gary Williams. "We haven't been able to put teams away this year. We have struggled with it this year and it was just another one of those types of games."

Over the first 15 and a half minutes the contest remained a one possession game. After a three-pointer by UTEP's Chris Craig tied the game at 3:38, Maryland went on a 9-0 run to go up 47-38 with 1:26 left. A pair of free throws by the Miners' Filiberto Rivera and John Tofi made it a 47-42 game at the break.

"It was a heck of a game to watch and a heck of a game to be in." said UTEP head coach Billy Gillispie. "Those guys played hard and we played extremely hard, like I knew we would."

UTEP's 60.0 percent first-half shooting allowed the Miners to keep it close in the first period.

Maryland jumped out to 11 point leads four times over the first 10 minutes of the second half, out scoring UTEP 23-17 during this span.

A 9-0 run by the Miners cut the Terps' lead to 70-68 with 5:43 left.

"We were the underdogs and everybody loves the underdogs," Gillispie said. "We had the crowd on our side and they helped us to make plays down the stretch."

The Miners tied the game at 72 on a lay-up by Giovanni St. Amant, who scored four of his eight points in the second half, with 4:04 remaining.

A pair of free throws by Omar Thomas, who scored 15 points, with 2:45 gave the Miners a 76-75 lead -- its only lead of the second half.

Maryland's Chris McCray padded the scored to 86-83 with a couple of free throws with 14 seconds left.

"I just stepped up there and hit them," said McCray on his final free throws. "That's one of the things I have to do to help my team win. UTEP is a fast team and there was a lot of time on the clock. If I had missed both of those free throws, they probably would have come back down the court and won the game."

McCray topped Maryland in scoring with 19 points, including going 3-for-4 from outside. He also had four rebounds and four assists.

UTEP pushed the ball up court on the final possession and set up a three-pointer for Craig. The shot however was blocked by Maryland's Jamar Smith and the Terps went on to advance to round number two.

"We wanted Chris (Craig) to have the ball in his hands. He's a great shooter," said Gillispie. "We could have had a better look, but there is nobody I would rather have shooting to win or tie a game than Chris. I think that he thought he would make it, and if he thinks he can make it, then he is supposed to shoot it."

The Terps had John Gilchrist (18 points), Smith (14 points) and Nik Caner-Medley (12 points) score in double figures. Gilchrist had five assists to go with seven rebounds, as well.

Maryland dominated the boards 37-27, including grabbing 16 offensive rebounds. Smith had eight of those rebounds, while D.J. Strawberry and Ekenee Ibekwe each had six.

The Miners fell for the first time all year after having five players score in double figures. Tofi led the way with 16 points and 10 rebounds. He was followed by Thomas, Craig (14 points), Rivera (12 points) and Jason Williams (10 points).

UTEP finishes the season 24-8.

Official Basketball Box Score
UTEP vs Maryland
03-18-04 10:40 a.m. at Denver, Colo. (Pepsi Center)
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VISITORS: UTEP (24-8)
                          TOT-FG  3-PT         REBOUNDS
## Player Name            FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF  TP  A TO BLK S MIN
01 Williams, Jason..... f  4-7    0-1    2-2    2  5  7   4  10  3  3  0  1  28
05 Smallwood, Roy...... f  3-4    0-1    2-2    1  0  1   5   8  2  1  0  0  18
40 Tofi, John.......... c  7-9    0-0    2-2    2  8 10   3  16  0  2  0  1  33
10 Craig, Chris........ g  5-12   3-9    1-1    0  1  1   2  14  0  1  0  0  30
21 Rivera, Filiberto... g  3-7    2-5    4-4    0  2  2   4  12  6  3  0  0  36
04 St. Amant, Giovanni.    4-6    0-1    0-0    0  1  1   1   8  1  0  1  0  25
11 Gehrke, Thomas......    0-1    0-0    0-0    0  1  1   0   0  0  0  0  0   1
23 Mattear, Darius.....    0-0    0-0    0-0    0  0  0   2   0  0  0  0  0   3
33 Thomas, Omar........    3-10   0-0    9-13   2  2  4   4  15  1  3  1  0  26
   TEAM................                         2     2             1
   Totals..............   29-56   5-17  20-24   9 20 29  25  83 13 14  2  2 200

TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 15-25 60.0%   2nd Half: 14-31 45.2%   Game: 51.8%  DEADB
3-Pt. FG% 1st Half:  3-10 30.0%   2nd Half:  2-7  28.6%   Game: 29.4%   REBS
F Throw % 1st Half:  9-10 90.0%   2nd Half: 11-14 78.6%   Game: 83.3%    1

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HOME TEAM: Maryland (20-11)
                          TOT-FG  3-PT         REBOUNDS
## Player Name            FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF  TP  A TO BLK S MIN
04 Garrison, Travis.... f  2-8    1-3    2-3    1  4  5   4   7  3  1  1  1  22
22 Caner-Medley, Nik... f  3-7    2-4    4-4    0  0  0   3  12  3  3  0  1  20
01 Smith, Jamar........ c  6-9    1-1    1-4    3  5  8   1  14  0  3  1  0  36
11 Gilchrist, John..... g  7-14   1-3    3-7    4  3  7   1  18  5  2  0  2  38
13 McCray, Chris....... g  5-8    3-4    6-7    1  3  4   3  19  4  4  0  2  37
05 Strawberry, DJ......    3-7    0-1    3-4    5  1  6   3   9  1  0  0  0  22
23 Jones, Mike.........    1-1    0-0    0-0    0  0  0   0   2  1  0  0  0   8
25 Ibekwe, Ekene.......    2-4    0-2    1-2    1  5  6   4   5  0  1  4  1  16
44 Fofana, Hassan......    0-1    0-0    0-0    0  0  0   1   0  0  0  0  0   1
   Team................                         1     1
   Totals..............   29-59   8-18  20-31  16 21 37  20  86 17 14  6  7 200

TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 16-31 51.6%   2nd Half: 13-28 46.4%   Game: 49.2%  DEADB
3-Pt. FG% 1st Half:  4-8  50.0%   2nd Half:  4-10 40.0%   Game: 44.4%   REBS
F Throw % 1st Half: 11-17 64.7%   2nd Half:  9-14 64.3%   Game: 64.5%    5

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Officials: Donnee Gray, Fran Connolly, Michael Roberts
Technical fouls: UTEP-None. Maryland-None.
Attendance:
Score by Periods                1st  2nd   Total
UTEP..........................   42   41  -   83
Maryland......................   47   39  -   86

Points in the paint-UTEP 40,MAR 36. Points off turnovers-UTEP 14,MAR 19.
2nd chance points-UTEP 11,MAR 10. Fast break points-UTEP 8,MAR 10.
Bench points-UTEP 23,MAR 16. Score tied-11 times. Lead changes-10 times.
Last FG-UTEP 2nd-01:39, MAR 2nd-02:08.