COLLEGE PARK, Md — One 3-pointer jumper went in and out. Then a second. Then a third.
But for each miss Duke had an answer, as first Mason Plumlee, then Ryan Kelly and finally Seth Curry outhustled his Terrapin opposition on the offensive glass. And then, on the Blue Devils’ fourth straight 3-point shot, an attempt from Kelly found the bottom of the net.
In the end, that possession was decided by the Blue Devils’ persistence. Fittingly, so was the game.
No. 8 Duke (17-3, 5-1 in the ACC) had to fend off an energized Maryland team, but used strong defense in the second half to secure a 74-61 win Wednesday night. The Terrapins (12-7, 2-3) and their crowd were raucous as the Comcast Center floor was christened “Gary Williams Court” during a pregame ceremony, but neither could sustain that emotion through a full 40 minutes.
“We started playing better defense in the last 10 minutes of the first half… but they knocked us back again,” Blue Devil head coach Mike Krzyzewski said. “We were like a veteran team for a lot of tonight’s game.”
Duke struggled defensively against a team Krzyzewski deemed “more athletic” then his from the start. Maryland claimed an eight-point lead seven minutes into the contest on the backs of frontcourt teammates James Padgett and Ashton Pankey, both of whom benefitted from a pick-and-roll game that flummoxed the Blue Devils.
The Terrapin lead never exceeded that margin, though, thanks to a career performance from Mason Plumlee. The junior was the focal point of the Blue Devil offense from the start, scoring six of Duke’s first eight points with an array of post moves and showing an assertiveness he lacked in Saturday’s loss to Florida State.
“The coaches showed a lot of confidence in me,” Plumlee said. “They knew I struggled last game, so they came to me early and often. That shows a lot of confidence in you and shows that they need you. That helped me out a lot.”
Plumlee finished the game with 23 points on 9-of-13 shooting, including a perfect 5-for-5 performance from the free throw line, while adding 12 rebounds and four assists. Twelve of his points came in the first 20 minutes, helping Duke to a 16-9 run that gave it a three-point halftime lead.
“I think he was really determined,” Krzyzewski said of Plumlee. “The last couple games he came up to us and said, ‘I’m not playing well. I need to play better.’ When guys do that, usually something good happens.”
But Plumlee’s dominance was not enough to put away the persistent Terrapins, who kept the Duke lead to single digits for the vast majority of the second half. When Kelly, who finished the night with 14 points of his own on 5-of-7 shooting, made a jumper to put the Blue Devils up nine with 8:48 to go, all signs pointed to a closing Duke run. But out of a timeout, Terrell Stoglin, who led Maryland with 16 points, made a free throw, followed by a Pankey offensive rebound. The ball went out to Nick Faust, whose 3-pointer from the corner bounced high off the nearside rim before swishing through the net.
Down the stretch, though, the Blue Devils were able to make the necessary hustle plays to close out the game. With just over five minutes to go, Plumlee missed a running hook, but immediately reversed direction and dove for his offensive rebound, drawing a foul in the process. That hustle led to an eventual layup for Plumlee to put Duke back up eight.
“Mason was spectacular tonight, but I thought his best play was when he got that loose ball,” Krzyzewski said.
Then, just over a minute later, Austin Rivers put up a floater that missed badly. But the freshman dived after his own miss and tapped it out to Curry, allowing the Blue Devils to burn through another 35-second shot clock.
“We were getting all the loose balls,” Kelly said. “We’re becoming a team that’s willing to put our body on the line.”
In an environment that seemed ripe for a court-storming upset, Duke needed every basket from Plumlee and every loose ball to stem the tide of emotion inside the Comcast Center. Persistence, it seems, paid off in the end.
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