Atlanta ? Lonny Baxter missed a layup, probably because he was falling down at the time.

Maryland’s senior post player then misfired on an awkward jump shot that didn’t draw iron, grabbed his own rebound and missed again. Again he caught the carom, but the Terp had his shot blocked.

A fifth time the ball came to Baxter, and for the fifth time in less than two minutes the Terps post player clanked a shot that had little chance of going through the cylinder.

Fortunately for Maryland, Baxter doesn’t give up easily.

The Silver Spring, Md., product finished with 15 points and a game-high 14 rebounds on Monday night at Georgia Dome, and the Terps claimed their first national championship with a 64-52 victory over Indiana.

“The thing about Lonny is that he never changes what he tries to do,” Maryland coach Gary Williams said. “He’s not always successful, but that doesn’t stop him from coming out the next night if he doesn’t have one of his best games. Tonight you saw what he’s like  double-double with the rebounds and scoring. He just seems to have to work so hard for his points some times. It’s like you’re in there with him, hoping he can put the ball over the rim to score. He can look bad on a play, and yet you look at the end of the game, you look at his statistics, he’s an amazing college basketball player.”

Baxter’s work on the backboards was critical for UM, which outrebounded the Hoosiers 42-31. Twelve of the senior’s season-high 14 rebounds came on the defensive end, helping the Terps limit IU to nine offensive boards.

Indiana’s Jared Jeffries (6-foot-10, 220 pounds) and Jarrad Odle (6-8, 220) were no match for Baxter (6-8, 260) and teammate Chris Wilcox (6-10, 220).

“We just focused on getting the ball inside like we do every game,” Baxter said. “That’s just the focus we that we always had coming into this tournament. We just took advantage of it. We rebounded the ball well, and we were just really playing a physical game. We had the size advantage over those two guys inside, and we just went at them.”

Unlike Saturday’s 97-88 victory over Kansas when he fouled out with four points in 14 minutes, Baxter stuck around for the duration this time. He blocked three shots in his 32 minutes.

“I know how he felt after the game Saturday night because he just didn’t get a chance,” Williams said. “He was sitting behind me the whole game. I know he was frustrated.”

Baxter took out those frustrations on the Hoosiers. Despite his five straight misses, the senior had six points and nine rebounds at halftime when UM took a 31-25 lead into the locker room.

Indiana made a 14-5 run in the second half and took a 44-42 lead on Jeffries’ basket with 9:53 remaining.

The Terps answered with a 9-2 run and led the rest of the way. Baxter scored four points in the pivotal outburst, including a rebound and dunk off a Steve Blake miss that made it 51-46 with 7:23 to play.

“He’s so physical,” Indiana coach Mike Davis said. “He was just kind of bulling our guys out of the way. He would step in real hard. He got the ball point-blank, there’s nothing you can do.”