The Blue Devils struggled offensively all night long, and Maryland hit key shots and made free throws down the stretch while Duke continued to miss. The Blue Devil's honeymoon perfect start ended in Cameron Indoor Stadium Wednesday night.
With less than two minutes remaining, Shavlik Randolph grabbed the rebound after Shelden Williams missed the first of a one-and-one. The junior forward held the ball in the lane for what seemed like an eternity before pivoting and hitting a layup from the right side.
Randolph’s basket tied the game at 64, and Cameron Indoor Stadium was rocking. Maryland took a timeout to try to stop Duke’s momentum, but it was all but settled—the Blue Devils were going to extend their winning streak to 16 games.
But the Terrapins had other ideas. A quick score by Ekene Ibekwe off the inbound play put Maryland ahead 66-64.
Daniel Ewing missed a three-pointer, and the Terps’ Travis Garrison corralled the rebound and Randolph promptly fouled him. His two free throws made it a four-point game with a minute to play.
After Lee Melchionni’s three-point shot went in and out, Ibekwe’s two free throws with 46 seconds remaining sealed the game, and Maryland snapped Duke’s 15-game winning streak, 75-66.
“I was thinking after Shav got that offensive rebound and put-back, we were going to come down and get a stop and then really just take hold of the game here on our home court,” Melchionni said. “But that wasn’t the case, and we really just gave it away.”
Duke (15-1, 5-1 in the ACC) suffered its first loss of the season to Maryland (12-5, 3-3) in a game that see-sawed back and forth throughout the second half. Head coach Mike Krzyzewski and his players defined the game by Duke’s lack of effort and inability to finish plays around the basket.
“We weren’t the Duke team that played 15 games where we were hungrier than our opponent,” guard Sean Dockery said. “Today we didn’t show any of that. We were just running through the motions.”
After opening the second half with a 34-30 lead, the Blue Devils had a chance to put the Terrapins away for good. Dockery stole a Maryland pass and passed upcourt to Melchionni. The junior forward tipped the ball back to Dockery, who streaked down the right side of the court for a layup to give the Blue Devils a 38-30 edge.
On Maryland’s next possession, Terps’ center Will Bowers slapped guard John Gilchrist’s inbound pass out of bounds. With Gilchrist visibly frustrated and the momentum firmly in the Blue Devils’ favor, the home team was unable to capitalize as J.J. Redick missed a jumper.
Maryland then went on a 18-9 run in less than five minutes to take the lead, 48-47. The spurt featured four points and several hustle plays by Gilchrist and seven points by Nik Caner-Medley, who finished with a game-high 25. Chris McCray added a three-point play when he was fouled while converting a dunk and capped the run with a layup in transition.
“[Caner-Medley] kind of took the game over in that time when the game was kind of decided. It was a short period, but it was such a critical period. I just think he overpowered us a few times,” Krzyzewski said. “If there’s one thing that won the game it was that his desire to win was great.”
For the game’s final 13 minutes, neither team was able to build a lead of more than four points until the Terrapins pulled away at the end. Part of the reason the Blue Devils sputtered on offense—only scoring 19 more points over the final 13 minutes—was the squandered chances that Krzyzewski said plagued the team all game.
In that 13-minute stretch, Williams missed two close-range shots and let a layup chance bounce off his hands and out of bounds.
“We had missed opportunities throughout the game,” Krzyzewski said. “Whether it was on breaks or when we had the ball inside so many times and just came up empty. We just can’t keep doing that.”
The Terrapins spent the majority of the first half in the lead before Redick—who scored 13 of his team-high 20 points in the first half—was fouled while shooting a three-pointer. His three free throws gave Duke its first lead of the game, 26-24. The Blue Devils entered halftime with a four-point advantage.
Coming off a home loss to N.C. State, Maryland viewed this game as an opportunity to reaffirm itself in the fiercely competitive ACC.
“After the N.C. State game, without me saying much, I think the players took it upon themselves to come in here and give a great effort,” Terrapin head coach Gary Williams said. “We played with a lot of confidence down the stretch when it was really tough.”
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