Maryland’s last ACC regular season game vs. Duke at Cameron indoor Stadium was a nail biter as The Blue Devils prevailed 69-67.  Chuck Mitchell gave Maryland energy and 8 points early to keep the Terps in the game.  On more than one occasion the Blue Devils threatened to open up wide margins but the visitors from College Park held their ground and stayed tough.  Sophomore Jake Layman picked up the scoring which included 2 shots from beyond the arc as Maryland refused to let Duke run and hide.  Nick Faust made a sensational one handed  dunk, which brought back memories of Gus Johnson, following a missed shot to excite the Terp faithfull.  At the half Duke led Maryland 39- 33.  Dez Wells was held scoreless and Seth Allen, Evan Smotrycz, Shaq Cleare and Jon Graham all were pretty ineffective offensively in the first 20 minutes.

 

Maryland came out strong in the beginning of the second half cutting Duke’s lead to 39-37 before Mitchell went to the bench with his 4^th foul.  Duke extended their lead to 9 points but Dez Wells caught fire to bring the Men In Black back into the game culminating with a traditional 3 point play to tie the score at 52-52.  The game stayed close to the end with Maryland forcing Duke into a shot clock violation with about 20 seconds to go in the game with the Blue Devils leading by a scant one point.  With 6.4 seconds left Mitchell had the ball knocked out of his hands under teh Duke basket.  Mitchell received the inbounds pass spun and put up a right handed hook from about 6 feet.  The ball bounced a couple of times on the rim before falling into Duke’s hands.  Duke made a free throw to go up by 2 and Dez Wells long desperation shot fell well short as the game ended.

 

Maryland shot 41,9% from the field and only 3 of 14 from beyond the arc and Duke shot 33.3% from the field and 5 for 24 from 3.  Duke went 28-34 from the charity stripe while the Terps struggled shooting only 12 of 19 from the line.  The Terps won the battle of the boards 43-36 and Duke had 10 steals while the Terps had only 4.

 

Jake Layman led the Terps with 18 points, Dez Wells had 17, all in the second half, and Chuck Mitchell chipped in with 12.  The Blue Devils were led by Freshman Jabari Parker with a game high 23 and was helped out by Rodney Hood with 11 and Rasheed Sulaimon came off the bench to net 11 points as well.

 

Great game, great effort by Maryland but the Terps come up short and go to 14-12 for the season and 6-7 in the ACC.  Duke notches their 20^th win and are now 9-3 in conference play.