Terps Showcase a Resume to the NCAA, Defeating Duke For the Second Time This Season, 85-77

If you happened to watch the Maryland Terps earlier this season, not one person would have ever imagined them to be making a march toward the big dance, but tonight, they might have just punched their ticket as the Terps left Cameron Indoor with their second victory over Duke this season.

The Blue Devils had won four straight since losing at Maryland 72-60, a defeat that dropped the Blue Devils out of The Associated Press Top 25 for the first time in 11 years. But they couldn’t avenge that loss, shooting 41 percent from the floor and coming up empty on several key possessions down the stretch.

The Terps were led by Mike Jones’ 25 points and D.J Strawberry’s 17 points in what was one of the biggest games of the season for ‘the Terps.

“I can’t say enough about these guys and their desire to win games. They came in here tonight with one goal, to win and now that we have defeated Duke for the second straight time this season, we can focus on the ACC Tournament, where we may just have to face them again, said Terps Head Coach Gary Williams.

Duke had one final chance to coral the Terps when they tied the game at 64 with just over five minutes remaining, but they could not manage to find a defensive scheme that would keep the Terps from securing the victory.

Maryland continued to take advantage of the Duke miscues as they built the lead to as many as 11 points in the final seconds. A monster breakaway dunk by Ekene Ibekwe with 9.4 seconds left a deflated look on all of the Cameron Crazies.

“Maryland is playing lights-out basketball,” Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said. “They played as well against us tonight as anybody has played against us all year. I think they could go against anybody.”