With one mighty heave at the horn, Maryland forward Danny Miller emphatically pronounced to the world that for once, the Maryland Terrapins have finally walked out of Cameron not embarrassed, but ecstatic, not dejected, but euphoric.
As the ball left Miller's hand and climbed toward the Cameron rafters, more than a decade's worth of frustration climbed off Gary Williams. For the coach who has achieved much in the profession, Maryland's 98-87 win gave Williams his first win in Cameron Indoor Stadium.
Just how much did that mean to Williams? Afterward, he told his players it was one of the biggest wins of his 22-year coaching career.
"We really believed we could win the game," Williams said. "I don't know [how much it means to me] right now. I'm sure on the plane, I'll think about it. The biggest thing for us was we wanted to prove we can play. I wanted our young guys to believe. That's a big win long term for our program as well as tonight."
If the victory ended 11 years of disappointment for Williams, it erased an equally painful, albeit shorter, period of frustration for junior Terence Morris. Five times in his career, Morris had gone into a Duke game believing his team could win; five times in his career, Morris had walked away from the court tasting defeat.
And for the game's first 35 minutes, it looked very much like Feb. 9, 2000 would add another bitter chapter to Morris' experience with Duke. Shane Battier had completely outclassed the preseason ACC player
For the second straight season, Battier exploded offensively against Morris and the Terrapins at Cameron, firing in a career-high six three-pointers and 28 points. On the defensive end, Battier and the Blue Devils held Morris to nine points on 4-of-19 shooting from the floor.
"In the first half, Terence had really good looks and he knew it," Williams said. "He came in at halftime and was really upset that he didn't put the ball in the basket more. In the second half, he was incredible. He wanted the ball-that's the Terence Morris I know, and that's his level of play."
Morris never backed down. Even when his shots were sailing every which way but in, the Frederick, Md. native kept demanding the ball. With just over five minutes left in the contest, Morris took the first Maryland shot on three straight possessions, missing on a long three, a short turnaround and another short jumper.
But like Wile E. Coyote, Morris kept on coming.
After Jason Williams had knotted the game at 83 with a driving lay-up fresh out of the last TV timeout of the game, Morris untied the score by burying a three-pointer from the left corner. And a minute later, Morris twisted the knife into Duke's 31-game regular season ACC winning streak and 46-game home winning streak by drilling another three from the left wing.
"I felt good with my shot early on, they just didn't fall," Morris said. "I'm one of the leaders on the team, so I've been through a lot and I know what to expect. Down the stretch, I have to hit shots when we need them and make plays when we need to. Today, I made a couple of threes."
Although Morris' threes may have sealed Maryland's win, they probably wouldn't have mattered if the Terrapins had not began the game showing uncharacteristically strong composure. The Terps hit their first three shots and led by two after seven minutes, a far departure from their last three trips to Cameron. In each of those contests, the game was decided in its opening minutes.
And a big reason for the strong start was the heady and collected play of Maryland's freshman point guard, Steve Blake. Unlike the many previous freshmen who were swallowed by the crowd in their first appearance in Cameron, Blake calmly directed a deadly efficient Maryland offense.
For the game, Blake logged 33 minutes and turned the ball over only twice, but most importantly, left the court with something rarer for an ACC player than a snowstorm in Durham-a perfect record in Cameron.
"When we were warming up, they were yelling at us, talking to us, trying to get us out of our game," Blake said of the crowd. "It feels good to silence them.... I'm looking forward to coming back here next year already."
Before Blake develops fuzzy feelings toward playing in Durham, the freshman may want to have a word with his coach.
But on this one night at least, Gary Williams' agonizing saga in Cameron can have a happy ending.
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