Wake Forest Athletics
Wake Forest Men's Basketball Tops Maryland
6/21/1999 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
COLLEGE PARK, Md. (AP) - Freshman Robert O'Kelley scored a career-high 31 points as Wake Forest held off a big last-minute rally and upset No. 25 Maryland 83-79 Thursday night. Trailing by as much as 19 points in the second half, the Terrapins outscored Wake Forest 10-1 within an 18-second span to close to 80-77 with about 34 seconds left.
Maryland had a chance to tie after Wake Forest's Josh Shoemaker threw away the ensuing inbounds pass, but Laron Profit threw up an air ball with 13.7 seconds remaining. Niki Arinze then made 3 of 4 free throws in the final 11.5 seconds to seal the victory for Wake Forest (13-11, 5-8), the Demon Deacons' third straight victory at Cole Field House.
Laron Profit scored 19 of his 26 points in the second half for Maryland (15-9, 8-6), which was troubled by turnovers and poor perimeter shooting in losing at home for only the second time this season. O'Kelley made six of his team's 15 3-pointers. Tony Rutland added 18 points for the Demon Deacons and Steven Goolsby had 13 off the bench.
Rodney Elliott added 16 points for the Terrapins. Wake Forest led 44-28 at halftime and took a 68-49 lead with 6:56 minutes left after back-to-back 3s by O'Kelley and Rutland. Most of the sellout crowd had left by the time Maryland began mounting its unsuccessful comeback.
