Before Thursday night's game against No. 23 Maryland, the men's basketball team professed that this was a completely different Terrapin team than the one it drubbed by 32 points at Cole Field House in early January. There was no way No. 1 Duke was going to be able to pull off another such lopsided win.
True. This time, the Blue Devils only crushed Maryland by 27.
In a game that wasn't even as close as the score indicated, Duke (19-1, 8-0 in the Atlantic Coast Conference) blasted Maryland (12-7, 5-4), 86-59, in Cameron Indoor Stadium.
"They've beaten us twice by the same type of margin," said Obinna Ekezie, who scored a career-high 23 the last time the two teams met but had just nine points on 3-of-10 shooting Thursday. "I don't know what to say."
Terrapin coach Gary Williams was actually spared form watching most of his team's defeat as he was ejected from the game with 14:09 remaining in the first half after receiving his second technical foul for arguing with the officials.
"You're responsible to be with your team throughout the game, and I didn't do that," Williams said. "It probably wouldn't have made any difference if I was there or not. Duke played well and we didn't, and Duke's good enough that that can happen."
Whether it was a direct effect of their coaches absence or merely the continuation of a trend that began before Williams' exit, the Terrapins where outscored 19-2 over the next 3:54.
"I think once their coach went out, they figured, 'What are we going to do now?'" said Roshown McLeod, who finished with 14 points and 11 rebounds. "They didn't regroup as well as they could have. It was our night. We played well, we were efficient offensively and we rebounded the ball well."
The Blue Devils took a 57-30 lead into the locker room, bettering the 61-39 lead they held at the half in College Park. The advantage eventually ballooned to 33 points in the second half following a Chris Carrawell layup with 12:21 remaining.
With a seemingly insurmountable lead in hand, Duke faced a similar situation to its last home game when it let a 24-point lead over Clemson slip away before pulling out the one-point win. This time Duke did not relent.
"We've matured a lot," said Carrawell, who scored 10 points. "Against Clemson, we had the exact same situation and we let it get away from us. Tonight, we took care of business."
The first man to take care of business for the Blue Devils was Trajan Langdon. The shooting guard scored 12 of Duke's first 25 points, all on three-pointers and free throws, and finished as the game's high scorer with 16.
At the 15:16 mark, the Blue Devils held a tenuous 9-8 lead before Langdon buried a three. Maryland's Sarunas Jasikevicius accosted referee Larry Rose following the play complaining of a moving pick. The sharing of his thoughts on the matter earned him a technical foul, and a line of follow-up questioning by Williams earned a second technical.
Langdon drained all four free throws, giving Duke a seven-point possession. Just over a minute later, he hit another three and sank a pair of free throws following a technical foul against Maryland's LaRon Profit for excessive celebration. Profit's technical brought the Terps tally to four on the night.
"I'm sorry the game had so many technicals, and Gary wasn't allowed to coach," Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "He's an outstanding coach and it's a shame what happened.... Still, I thought our defense overshadowed everything. I'm sorry, but it doesn't take away from the performance of our team."
That Blue Devil defense recorded 14 steals, held Maryland to under 38-percent shooting for the game and forced the Terrapins into 24 turnovers. Duke also blocked six shots and wreaked havoc on the offensive glass, hauling down 16 offensive boards. Most notable was the Blue Devils' 48-38 advantage on the boards, signaling a marked turnaround from last year's Duke squad which was notoriously out-rebounded.
One of the Blue Devils most responsible for their defensive dominance was reserve Shane Battier. The freshman scored just six points but tallied a game-high four steals while racking up nine boards, including four offensive.
"Shane is an amazingly fundamentally sound player,"Krzyzewski said. "On defense, he'll be one of the best to ever play in the ACC when it's all said and done. He's certainly not afraid of bodily harm."
Battier also brought the Cameron crowd to a roar late in the first half with a series that included a tough offensive rebound and a putback that resulted in a three-point play, followed by a steal on the other end.
"I tell you, it's tough not to hear the crowd out there," Battier said. "The Crazies are great and they are one of the reasons I chose to come here. I really appreciate what they do. Every time I dive for a loose ball or scrap for an offensive board or take a charge, every time I get up to a standing ovation. It makes me want to go out there and do it again."
Chris Burgess also left his mark on the game, tallying a career-high in boards with nine, including five on the offensive end. The freshman also had two blocked shots on the evening to go along with his eight points. Despite struggling horribly from the free-throw line (2-of-8), Krzyzewski termed Thursday night's performance the best of Burgess' Duke career.
The win was the 10th in a row for the Blue Devils, and their 19-1 record stands as the second-best start in school history behind the 1992 squad's 21-1 opening mark.
Duke next takes on Georgia Tech Sunday at 1:30 p.m. in Cameron.
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