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NEW YORK (Ticker) -- Arizona may have lost four starters, but it still has Jason Gardner. Gardner scored 23 points and snapped a tie with a rare four-point play as Arizona posted a 71-67 upset of third-ranked Maryland in the Coaches vs. Cancer Ikon Classic at Madison Square Garden. Arizona will face fifth-ranked Florida in Friday's title game. The Wildcats lost three underclassmen and center Loren Woods from last year's squad that lost to Duke in the national championship game. The Terrapins were riding high off the first Final Four appearance in school history with four starters back and matched its best preseason ranking ever. "I just think that's a lot of people's opinions," Gardner said of No. 3 ranking. "I think the best you can hope for is that the team plays within itself." Gardner tried to join former teammates Woods and Richard Jefferson in the NBA but did not perform well in the summer camps and returned to school. But he did not let his disappointment show Thursday, playing all 40 minutes and forcing six turnovers from Maryland's Steve Blake, his point guard counterpart. The game was tied, 61-61, when Luke Walton found Gardner on the left wing for a 3-pointer as he was fouled by Lonny Baxter. Gardner made the free throw for a four-point edge with 3:17 left. "We broke the press," Gardner said. "Luke made a great pass. I let it go. I thought Baxter blocked it. I was on the ground, I heard the roar of the crowd. I thought 'OK, it must've went in.'" Maryland climbed within two points three times in the final three minutes, but Arizona answered each time. Freshman Will Bynum scored on a driving layup for a 67-63 edge with 2:14 to go and freshman center Isaiah Fox added a follow shot for a 69-65 lead with 44 seconds left. Chris Wilcox pulled the Terrapins within 69-67 with a short jumper with four seconds remaining, but Rick Anderson sealed the win with a pair of free throws. One of three regulars returning from last year's team, Walton scored 12 points and grabbed 12 rebounds. Anderson, another junior holdover, added 10 points. "Thank goodness we've got the kind of leadership that we have from the juniors," Arizona coach Lute Olson said. "(But) we know we've got a tremendous amount of work to do." With limited practice time before the early season opener, Arizona scrapped its traditional man-to-man defense in favor of a matchup zone to force the Terps to hoist 3-pointers instead of using their more experienced frontcourt. "I thought (the zone) kept them a little off-balance," Olson said. "Maryland did a fabulous job of getting back into it." The strategy worked as Maryland shot 26 percent (7-of-27) from beyond the arc, including a 2-of-9 outing from Blake. The zone also helped the Wildcats on the glass, where they held a surprising 46-40 edge. "We had a good zone offense," Maryland coach Gary Williams said. "It wasn't our zone offense. We settled for jump shots first. We weren't tough enough to go inside as consistently as we liked." Maryland jumped out to a 20-13 lead when Juan Dixon hit the team's first 3-pointer with 11:23 left in the first half. But the steady leadership of Gardner helped bring the Wildcats back. He fed freshman Salim Stoudamire for a 3-pointer before stripping Blake and going the length of the court for a layup and a 20-20 tie with 8:15 to go. Dixon, a first team All-Atlantic Coast Conference player last season, led Maryland with 21 points and five steals, but Baxter -- second team selection -- managed just 14 and nine rebounds. Byron Mouton misfired on 10-of-15 shots and scored 10 points. "Coach prepared us well," Dixon said. "We knew they were playing a matchup zone, and they did. I think this definitely shows that we need to work on certain things." Stoudamire, the cousin of former Arizona star and current Portland Trail Blazers guard Damon Stoudamire, led the freshmen with 12 points off the bench. Fox added six as Arizona improved to 3-0 all-time against Maryland.
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