COLLEGE PARK, Md. -- Many a coach will tell anyone who will listen the importance of end-of-game situations. The men's basketball team must have good ears.
In their 73-69 win over Maryland Wednesday night, the Blue Devils faced a number of key end-of-game situations and demonstrated outstanding execution.
"I thought our kids held our poise very, very well," said Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski.
Duke's senior leadership was instrumental in that poise as Marty Clark, Grant Hill and Tony Lang were all involved in key plays that helped Duke down the Terrapins for the 15th consecutive time.
"Their veteran people did the job down the stretch," Maryland head coach Gary Williams said.
With 3:23 remaining, the Terrapins put the wild crowd in a frenzy by cutting an eight-point deficit to 63-60 on a three-point shot by Duane Simpkins. The Blue Devils put the ball in the hands of Hill, but his shot from the low post was high on the glass.
Clark, in a play reminiscent of his game-winning basket against Notre Dame on Jan. 26, was alone on the other side of the basket and put back Hill's miss to give Duke a 65-60 lead.
"No one was there for a weak-side rebound so I just ran over there," Clark said. "It ended up being long and I got my hands on it."
The Terrapins took a timeout following the Clark basket and the two teams traded baskets. Maryland again put the pressure on Duke as Simpkins made a conventional three-point play after being fouled on a driving layup to make it 67-65 with 1:59 left.
But the Blue Devils managed the clock superbly. With the Cole Field House crowd as loud as it had been all game, Duke took 27 seconds off the clock before dumping the ball into Lang, who was fouled.
The foul gave Duke another 35 seconds on the shot clock. The Blue Devils used up 19 more seconds before Hill began a drive from the top of the key and was fouled by Johnny Rhodes, who bumped Hill as he tried to block the way to the basket.
The Terps called a timeout and gave Hill time to think about his 1-and-1 opportunity from the charity stripe. But as they crowd rose all around him, the man who had his jersey retired last Sunday stepped to the line and drained both ends to put Duke up 69-65 with 1:13 left.
Maryland had a chance to cut the lead to two points on the next possession, but junior Erik Meek came across the lane and fouled Maryland's wide-open Keith Booth.
Meek's foul prevented what would likely have been two points. Instead, Wayne Bristol, who substituted for Booth at the foul line after Booth was shaken up on the play, made just one of two free throws, giving Duke a little more room to work with.
With the score 69-66 and 1:02 left, the Blue Devils beat the full-court pressure and once again began to methodically drain the shot clock second by second.
"We've won a lot of close games this year and our end-of-clock management has been outstanding," Krzyzewski said.
The basketball ended up in the hands of sophomore Chris Collins who took the ball from the right corner and drove towards the basket.
Four. Three. Two. What to do? Many players would have panicked and thrown up an ill-advised shot. Collins, however, calmly wrapped a pass around a Maryland defender to a wide open Lang who dunked the ball to give Duke a comfortable 71-66 lead which it rode out the final 24 seconds for the victory
"The experience really showed at the end of the game, to keep our composure and have the poise to finish the way that we did," Lang said. "This is not the first time we've done this. I think that working on that in practice and being in that situation before really helped us."
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.