The Maryland players took a similar tack when the game finally started. After spotting an early lead to Virginia -- which eliminated Duke from the Atlantic Coast Conference regular-season title race three nights earlier -- the Terrapins took control and finished with the most points they have ever scored on the Cavaliers, winning 112-92.

On "Senior Day", Juan Dixon overcame a sluggish first half where he missed his first five shots to lead the Terps with 23 points on 9-of-19 shooting. Senior Lonny Baxter made eight of 10 field goal attempts to score 20 points and Byron Mouton finished with 11 as six Terps finished in double figures.

Steve Blake, who sat out a stretch in the first half after picking up two early fouls, never picked up another on his way to scoring 15 points and handing out 10 assists for his fourth career double-double. Sophomore Chris Wilcox, who started the season trading starts with junior Tahj Holden, again looked extremely impressive, making eight of nine field goal attempts to finish with 21 points, 11 rebounds and four assists in 25 minutes.

"You want to go out on a high note," Maryland Head Coach Gary Williams said. "I've seen games like that where just on the senior night alone, it's really hard to play because a lot of emotion is used up before the game. It was tough getting started, but we got the lead midway through and then we came out and played great in the second half."

The victory gives Maryland (25-3, 15-1 in the ACC) just its fourth-ever undefeated home season in the 47-year history of Cole Field House, as they went 15-0 there this season. Maryland also locks up its fourth straight 25-win season and extends its best-ever ACC winning streak to 12 games.

"It means a lot," Dixon said. "Even though we already won the regular season ACC championship, we wanted to go undefeated here in Cole and we wanted to go out with the win. We have a lot of momentum going into tournament time. It was a great win. There was a lot of emotion today."

The energy in the building was impossible to miss, and it took the Terrapins a few minutes to get back on track after Virginia used a 7-2 run to take a 19-14 first half lead. Blake quickly returned to the lineup after sitting with those two fouls, and the Terps regained their focus. Drew Nicholas (10 points) made two three-pointers and Mouton scored seven points during a 25-5 run that gave Maryland a 39-24 lead with just under four minutes remaining the first half.

A three-pointer by Virginia's Chris Williams (game-high 28 points) cut the Terps' lead to 43-36 at the half, but a three-pointer from Blake to open the second half seemed to negate any momentum the Cavaliers (17-10, 7-9) might have hoped to achieve.

After Williams made another three to cut the Maryland lead to nine, Baxter made a lay-up on an alley-oop pass from Blake to start a 13-3 run that was capped with a fast-break dunk by Baxter to give the Terps a 19-point lead that would not go lower than 15 the rest of the way.

"We can go on big runs like that without you even knowing it sometimes," Blake said. "The second half was one of the most fun times I've had on the court. Once we got going and into the flow of the game, I really enjoyed it."

Even senior Earl Badu had a chance to contribute, drawing the loudest cheers of the evening from the student section. First the walk-on notched an assist when Baxter scored, then the Baltimore native scored on an impressive driving lay-in that was tipped by a defender and still managed to go through the hoop. Freshman Andre Collins made a three pointer with less just before the final buzzer to help the Terps eclipse their previous record of 110 points against the Cavaliers.

Following a ceremony at the end of the game in which five decades of Maryland basketball greats handed down the game ball from one person to the next, the current Terps cut down the net to celebrate the team's first regular season ACC title since 1980.

"It's been a big two weeks for me," said Baxter, who along with Dixon had his number hung from the rafters of Cole last Sunday and who was among the Terp greats to pass along the game ball this evening. "It's a great feeling to be honored as one of the best who ever played here. I was really glad that I had this opportunity to go through all of this here."

For some on the team, cutting down the nets proved to be one of the more challenging activities of the evening.

First up was freshman Mike Grinnon, who cut part of the bottom of the net, which did nothing to help it be removed from the rim.

Later, Dixon cut one too many strands of nylon, leaving nothing for Williams to cut down. In an attempt to make up for cutting too much, Dixon tied the net back to the rim, and handed the scissors to Williams for the final cut.

"I'd give Juan an 8, but the worst was Mike. How do you go and cut the bottom of the net?" Mouton said of his teammates' nylon cutting abilities. "He said he'd be ready next time.

“The last time we're gonna cut down the net will be Atlanta."

Maryland Head Coach Gary Williams

It seemed like the game would never start, there were so many distractions. This wasn't typical preparation for a game with all the players coming back. It was really tough, we tried to keep the players away from that, but sometimes you can't do that.

I've seen games like that where just on the senior night alone, it's really hard to play because a lot of emotion is used up before the game. We did a good job of, it was tough getting started, but we got the lead midway through and then we came out and played great in the second half.

When you play Virginia, they're such a good offensive rebounding team that the rebounding concerns you first. We were able to stay with them tonight, which is very encouraging for me. They really hurt us down in Virginia in that area. We have a good team, it's not one guy it's a group of people that decided to try to be as good as they can be this year. That's the great thing about coaching you can focus the whole thing you do on this one year. You don't have to worry about last year or next year. I think this team has done as good a job as any team I've coached of taking each game and each situation as it comes along.

We haven't had to bring down the guys who have been too high too many times, and we haven't had to bring them up too much. I think that comes from having a good group of seniors. I think they respect each other, number one. The other players on the team respect the seniors for the effort they make every day in practice and there's no levels on the team. The last man on the team is treated just as well as the best man on the team and that's very important to our success.

I'm proud of these guys. It could have been a very tough year for the seniors having gone to the Final Four last year. Not many players ever get to go to the Final Four. It would have been very easy to say I've been to the Final Four in my career. They came out hard right away to start practice, and it's been a good ride so far.

On going undefeated at Cole Field House:

I never have been one to talk about goals or anything like that, but at Midnight Madness, I did say we were going to go undefeated. I slipped 'try' in there just in case we didn't make it, but I really meant it. That was a personal goal for this year to go undefeated this year in Cole. You might as well leave in the right way. For everybody that's been a part of Cole Field House, we want this to be a great year. It's just incredible this building has been a big part of people's life for the past 50 years. You want to go out on a high note. I was very concerned that we play well tonight. And to come out and shoot 73 percent in the second half was really gratifying for me. You look down the court and I think it's safe to say Maryland has had its share of great players going back to the 50's right up 'till now.

On Juan's slow start:

He acts like he drinks a six-pack of Coke when he's normal. Tonight he was more hyper than that. Tonight it was Senior Night and we had won the conference championship. He just had to calm down, once he slowed down he was fine.

On Senior Night at Cole:

We have three very good seniors, the experience of Lonny Baxter, Byron Mouton and Juan Dixon is probably as good as anybody's in the country for three positions. I do feel it is an advantage if you have the right seniors. ... These guys are very happy to be playing their senior year at Maryland and that is very important too.

On the atmosphere at Cole

The atmosphere is a little different coaching here than playing here. It probably had something to do with how good we were. Cole was unique because it was such a big building and there was no seats on the floor when I played. You really were playing in a vacuum. The stands were so far away and you couldn't hear the crowd much. Now, with the crowd on top of everything. Lefty Driesell did a great job. If you look at the history of college basketball, Lefty was one of the great people to market a basketball program. ... It's not just coming in here and getting the players, it's the whole package, and I thought Lefty did a great job of that.

On breaking through for the ACC regular season crown

I don't have the statistics, but I'm sure there's been at least one or two teams in the top five of 10 in the country every year in the 13 years I've been here. So a lot of times to win the league, you have to beat the number one team in the country and that's hard to do. This year, we finally got good enough where we could supplant the people at the top. That's been a goal, but it's taken a long time. We've been there before, but we finally broke through this year.