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Imposing Their Will: Blue Devils storm past Terps 85-44
AP Photo
Duke's Kyle Singler drives between Maryland's Landon Milbourne (left) and Adrian Bowie.
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Published: January 25, 2009
DURHAM
If Duke can play any better than it did yesterday, then pity the ACC for the rest of the season.
Maryland took a beating for the ages in Cameron Indoor Stadium in an all-around dominant performance from start to finish. Duke won 85-44 for its biggest ACC win since Feb. 21, 2001, when it beat Georgia Tech 98-54 at home.
Pick any category and the Blue Devils excelled. The Terrapins couldn't solve the Blue Devils' defense to create shots or protect possession and suffered the fourth-biggest shellacking in their proud history and their worst-ever ACC loss.
Forward Gerald Henderson said that Duke wasn't mad at anyone, but it certainly played as if it were trying to prove something beyond the shadow of a doubt.
"We just want to be really good," Henderson said. "Coming into a game like this, we know that if we win today we're going to be 5-0 (in the ACC). We're going to be a game closer to winning the ACC championship, which is our goal.
"There was enough motivation coming into this game to be great. Over everything, we just want to perform really well."
Duke improved to 18-1 overall and 5-0 in the conference. It hasn't given up more than 58 points in a conference game. And it will likely be the No. 1 team in both national polls for this week, heading into Wednesday's game at Wake Forest, the previous No. 1 team.
Maryland fell to 13-6 and 2-3 and scored its fewest points ever under Coach Gary Williams in 631 games over 20 seasons. Maryland's previous worst ACC loss was a 39-point setback to Wake Forest in the 1963 season.
Maryland's previous worst ACC loss under Williams was a 36-point defeat to North Carolina in the 1993 ACC Tournament.
The loss was the biggest for Williams in a 31-year coaching career. And it was the worst for Maryland overall since March 1, 1944, when it was beaten by Army by 63 points in West Point.
Williams was disappointed in his team's play and its inability to respond to anything Duke did, especially when applying defensive pressure, but accepted the loss as extremely difficult day for a young team on the ACC road.
"I hope the rest of your day is better than my last two hours," Williams said.
"This can happen here probably quicker than any other place in the country. Today we hit a road block. Don't take anything away from Duke. They had a chance to be No. 1 if they beat us today, and that was the motivating factor."
Henderson led Duke with 17 points. Jon Scheyer had 12 points and Kyle Singler had 11. Brian Zoubek grabbed nine rebounds and helped Duke forge a 56-38 advantage on the boards.
Landon Milbourne led Maryland with 19 points. No other Maryland player scored more than five points. Eleven Maryland players other than Milbourne combined to score 25 points.
Duke led by 10 points nine minutes into the game. It led 40-15 at halftime. Duke built a 38-15 lead without the help of a point from point guard Nolan Smith.
The lead was 46-20 in the second half when Duke went off on a 14-0 run for a 40-point lead with 15:28 left. The run ended with a play that involved four Duke players.
Henderson knocked the ball loose from Greivis Vasquez and Singler saved possession near the sideline just beyond midcourt. Singler threw the ball ahead and Scheyer ran it down near the left baseline. Scheyer saw Smith near the basket and whipped him a pass.
Smith had a shot, but saw Henderson running down the lane from the top of the key. Smith made a touch pass to Henderson, who stuck in a layup and was fouled. He missed the free throw.
"I knew he was going to pass it to me," Henderson said. "I thought he might throw it off the backboard or something crazy. The crowd was in it.
"It was just one of those moments where everyone is sharing. You don't really know who's scoring the basketball. That was a heck of a play by Nolan and Jon, who gave him the ball."
Coach Mike Krzyzewski said he thought that the play was one of Duke's best on a day of outstanding plays.
"It was a pretty damn good possession," Krzyzewski said. "For all of you who think you can play, you can't do that. It was beautiful basketball … very unselfish."
Krzyzewski said he thought that several factors combined to produce the surprising rout. Although he was pleased by his team's sharp play, Krzyzewski said that the game was only one in a long ACC season.
He said his 29 years at Duke have proved to him that the reverse can happen to the team administering the beating, and Duke has six ACC road games remaining. One will be a return engagement at Maryland on Feb. 25.
"Maryland couldn't hit today and that helped us a lot," he said. "It was one of those games where we played good defense and the shots that they did have open early missed.
"Not too often do you have a game like this. If you can't put the ball in the basket, it makes the other team look a lot better. We played really well, but we looked a lot better because they just couldn't hit shots today."
■ Bill Cole can be reached at bcole@wsjournal.com.
MARYLAND Min FG-A FT-A OR-T A PF PT
Milbourne 30 9-16 1-1 2-5 2 2 19
Neal 17 2-4 0-0 0-1 1 2 5
Hayes 20 1-6 0-0 0-1 0 1 2
Vasquez 28 2-10 0-0 0-1 1 2 4
Bowie 30 1-10 1-2 2-5 2 2 3
Dupree 8 1-5 1-3 1-1 0 0 3
Kim 5 0-3 0-0 0-1 0 0 0
Mosley 23 1-7 1-2 2-5 2 3 4
Pearman 3 0-1 0-0 0-1 0 0 0
Tucker 17 1-1 0-0 1-2 2 1 2
Goins 3 0-0 1-2 2-2 0 1 1
Gregory 16 0-1 1-2 1-4 0 1 1
Totals 200 18-64 6-12 15-38 10 15 44
Percentages: FG .281, FT .500. 3-Point Goals: 2-12, .167 (Neal 1-2, Mosley 1-2, Bowie 0-1, Pearman 0-1, Hayes 0-2, Kim 0-2, Vasquez 0-2). Team Rebounds: 9. Blocked Shots: 6 (Gregory 3, Goins, Mosley, Milbourne). Turnovers: 17 (Bowie 4, Vasquez 4, Hayes 4, Gregory 2, Goins, Mosley, Neal). Steals: 5 (Milbourne 2, Mosley, Kim, Bowie). Technical Fouls: None.
DUKE Min FG-A FT-A OR-T A PF PT
Singler 22 3-9 4-4 3-7 2 0 11
Henderson 23 7-8 1-3 2-8 4 0 17
Zoubek 18 4-7 1-2 7-9 3 3 9
Smith 19 2-6 2-2 1-2 4 1 8
Scheyer 24 4-13 0-0 1-5 3 1 12
Paulus 17 3-6 0-0 1-5 4 1 7
Pocius 11 1-4 0-0 1-2 1 0 3
Czyz 9 0-2 0-0 0-1 1 0 0
McClure 11 1-2 0-0 0-4 0 1 2
Williams 14 3-5 2-4 0-1 1 3 9
Plumlee 12 0-5 0-0 2-5 0 2 0
Thomas 17 3-6 1-4 2-3 0 2 7
Johnson 3 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 1 0
Totals 200 31-73 11-19 21-56 23 15 85
Percentages: FG .425, FT .579. 3-Point Goals: 12-25, .480 (Scheyer 4-8, Henderson 2-2, Smith 2-2, Williams 1-1, Singler 1-3, Paulus 1-3, Pocius 1-4, Czyz 0-2). Team Rebounds: 4. Blocked Shots: 12 (Zoubek 4, Plumlee 3, Thomas 2, Singler 2, Czyz). Turnovers: 10 (Paulus 2, Henderson 2, Singler 2, Scheyer, Czyz, Pocius). Steals: 11 (Thomas 2, Singler 2, Henderson 2, Plumlee, Zoubek, Scheyer, Smith, Pocius). Technical Fouls: None.
Maryland 15 29 -- 44
Duke 40 45 -- 85
A--9,314
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