Maryland's Juan Dixon doesn't miss in 33-point performance

ATLANTA - Maryland hasn't forgotten blowing a 22-point lead to Duke in the national semifinals last season. \nBut the Terrapins almost suffered déjà vu Saturday against Kansas, again in the national semifinal. Maryland let a 20-point lead shrink to four before holding off the Jayhawks 97-88 in front of 53,378 Georgia Dome fans.\nThe victory puts Maryland in its first-ever national title game, facing IU at 9:18 p.m. tonight. \nMaryland All-American guard Juan Dixon led the Terrapins with a game-high 33 points, tying his career best. Chris Wilcox added 18 for Maryland, which had four players in double figures.\nFive Jayhawks had double digits, with forward Nick Collison's 21 leading the way. \nDixon was nearly unstoppable, hitting 10 of 18 field goals (5 of 11 three-pointers), but Terrapin forward Lonny Baxter battled foul trouble and played only 14 minutes. Baxter scored only four points and took just four shots before fouling out. \nBaxter's absence allowed Kansas to race to a 13-2 lead four minutes into the game, but Maryland trimmed that lead to three within four more minutes and led 44-37 at the break. \nKansas cut the lead to four in the second half, at 56-52, but Maryland used a 27-11 run to break open a 20-point lead with 6:10 remaining. \n"We missed some shots, make some mistakes…all of the sudden, it's an 18-point game," Kansas coach Roy Williams said. For a while, it looked like Kansas might complete a comeback comparable to that of Duke's against Maryland last season. The Jayhawks used a 10-0 run to cut the lead to eight, then trimmed it to four with 20 seconds left on a three-pointer by forward Drew Gooden, who finished with 15 points. \nBut Kansas tried to call a timeout after the three pointer and didn't have any left, resulting in a technical foul. Dixon hit one of two free throws to seal the win. \n"We stayed strong," Dixon said. "We grew up a lot over the last year or so. Hopefully, we'll go out and get one more"