COLLEGE PARK, Md. -- Despite having many fond memories of an arena that has been kind to him throughout his ACC coaching career, Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski will have very few pleasant recollections of his final game at Maryland's Cole Field House.
Struggling with its shooting, saddled by 17 turnovers and unable to outhustle the pumped-up Terrapins, No. 1 Duke fell 87-73 to No. 3 Maryland in a contest marked by a string of Blue Devil setbacks that blended to create the perfect storm. Triangle native Chris Wilcox led the Terrapins (21-3, 11-1 in the ACC) with 23 points and 11 rebounds, but it was Maryland's complete team effort, coupled with Duke's shooting woes and other assorted deficiencies, that gave the Terps their first win in Cole Field House against the Blue Devils (22-2, 11-2) in four years.
"Maryland played an outstanding basketball game," Krzyzewski said. "I thought we were ready to play, but we got ahead of ourselves.... You can get away with that if the other team isn't playing well, but Maryland was playing well.
"The team that should have won, won. And they won in convincing fashion."
The third-ranked Terps, eager to avenge their 21-point loss to the Blue Devils Jan. 17 in Durham, ruled the game from start to finish, never faltering despite the lingering chance of another miracle comeback by Duke in Cole. Last year, Maryland led the Blue Devils by 10 points with 54 seconds remaining, but collapsed in the final minute of regulation and eventually lost in overtime.
But this time around, the seemingly inevitable Duke run never occurred,
The final deathblow came with the departure of junior Mike Dunleavy, who fouled out with 1:33 remaining in the contest. In large part, Dunleavy's foul trouble was attributed to the aggressive play of Wilcox, who stifled the Oregon native's three-point shooting on defense and challenged Dunleavy relentlessly on offense. The Whiteville, N.C. native's high-octane performance was especially crucial given the lack of touches that fellow big man Lonny Baxter received.
Wilcox scored 14 points in the second half, many of which came when Dunleavy was confined to the bench or forced to play without physicality because of his foul trouble.
"Sometimes when you've got a big man bumping on you the whole game, it takes some of your wind and some of your strength," the 6-foot-10 Wilcox said of his effect on the Dunleavy. "On offense, when you're coming down, your shot won't really be there, and I thought I did a great job of posting him up and great job of flying at his shot."
Whether it was the defensive tenacity of Wilcox and his teammates or merely a self-inflicted setback, the Blue Devils' shooting was much worse than their typical performances. After missing its five of its first seven shots of the game--including its first four three-point attempts--the revved-up Duke team never was able to channel its pre-game excitement into consistent execution. Maryland jumped out to 12-4 lead on a short jumper by Wilcox with 15:35 left in the half before the Blue Devils, sparked by two three-pointers by Dunleavy, cut the Terps' lead to 16-14.
Maryland then matched Duke's run with an explosion of its own. Reserve Drew Nicholas nailed a trey from just right of the top of the key at the midway point of the first half, and Lonny Baxter and Byron Mouton followed their teammate's long-range bomb with a dunk and a layup on successive fast breaks.
Down by as much as 13, Duke mounted its customary end-of-first-half run as the first period wound down. Layups by Nick Horvath and Carlos Boozer--who led Duke with 19 points--with two-and-a-half minutes to go got the Blue Devils going, and a foul shot by Jason Williams and a deuce by Boozer off a Daniel Ewing assist gave Duke seven unanswered points and a deficit of only six.
The first half ended on an upbeat note for the Terrapins, though, as Wilcox hit a free throw to give Maryland a 34-27 advantage and a steal and subsequent basket by point guard Steve Blake gave the hosts a 38-29 lead heading into the intermission.
Based on this key play and Blake's eight-point, 13-assist performance, Gary Wiliams praised the play of his floor leader after the contest.
"When you play against guards like that and handle the ball like he did, that gets overlooked sometimes because of points and rebounds. That's equally as valuable to a team's success when you play a good basketball team.
"I thought Steve really walked that line about being aggressive yet taking care of the ball."
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