The top ranked Duke Blue Devils (15-0, 2-0 ACC) had to fight to put away Maryland and get the victory 71-64 at home. They were paced by their All-American candidate, Kyle Singler, with 25 points and 10 rebounds. He hit a crucial three with 52.7 seconds left to ice the game for the Blue Devils and give them a 70-62 lead. Earlier in the game with 2:30 left to play Jordan Williams got a bucket and got fouled. He missed the free throw but got the offensive rebound and missed a close in bank shot that kept the lead 65-60 Duke.
In the first eight minutes of the game, the Terps (10-5. 0-2) struggled and Duke missed a golden opportunity to blow the game open and put them away early. The Terps hung in there despite Jordan Williams picking up 2 fouls with 12:41 still to play in the first half. The announcers even commented, “No one brings it into Cameron consistently quite like Gary Williams’ Terrapins. They feed off his intensity.” Gary Williams nursed Williams’ minutes very well and at half time it was 32-31 Duke and Jordan Williams played 12 minutes in the first half and kept the 2 fouls.
In the second half, Maryland jumped on a quick 7-0 run to take the lead 38-32. Duke followed that up with an 11-0 run to take the lead 43-38 and with 11 minutes to play it was tied at 46. However, transfer Seth Curry and freshman Tyler Thornton really helped spark the Duke team and lead them as senior Nolan Smith struggled the whole evening.
Looking back on the 5 questions posed Saturday, Singler finished with the game high 25 points and 10 rebounds and Nolan Smith struggled to get to 18 points but did have 7 rebounds and 8 assists. The freshmen for Maryland (Stoglin and Howard) only had 8 points between them. Jordan Williams got his ninth double-double and did have a phenomenal game with 23 points and 13 boards. Cliff Tucker added in 14 points but there were no other Terps in double figures.
It was a good game but Duke showed its mettle getting a tough hard fought victory at home but it is something the Terps can build on as the ACC regular season rolls along. They played with tremendous effort.