Duke-Maryland Preview

1/26/2008 8:41 PM

By JEFF MEZYDLO
STATS Writer

Four games into its ACC schedule and Duke has yet to be seriously challenged for an entire contest. That's likely about to change.

The fourth-ranked Blue Devils will need to be at their best as they look to remain the lone undefeated team in the conference Sunday night when they visit Maryland, which is coming off an upset of the former No. 1 team in the nation.

Duke (16-1, 4-0) won 81-64 at Virginia Tech on Thursday to continue its early dominance in the ACC. The Blue Devils have won each conference game by at least 13 points and will try for a seventh consecutive victory overall Sunday.

That's not expected to be easy as Duke tries to avoid losing three in a row to Maryland (12-7, 2-2), which swept the series in 2006-07 for the second time in three seasons.

The Terrapins, who have won five of the last seven meetings with the Blue Devils, play for the first time since Bambale Osby's layup with 21 seconds left helped them upset then-No. 1 North Carolina 82-80 in Chapel Hill on Jan. 19 for their second straight ACC win after opening 0-2 in the league.

"I think we have become a better basketball team the last couple weeks," said Maryland coach Gary Williams, whose team regrouped after suffering home losses to Ohio and American last month. "Our two losses in the league were by one at Virginia Tech and we were up four against Boston College."

While the Terps were able to slow the tempo and force somebody other than North Carolina All-American Tyler Hansbrough to try and beat them, they'll have to contend with an undersized, but deep and balanced Duke squad that has four players averaging at least 11 points and is the league's top shooting team at 48.6 percent.

"We're not this huge, brute team with a big center or anything like that, so guys are going to think that they can push us around,'' Duke's Gerald Henderson said.

"But we have a lot of fight in our team.''

Thursday, Kyle Singler scored 10 of his 16 points during an 18-9, second-half run that allowed the Blue Devils to pull away from Virginia Tech. The 6-foot-8 freshman, who averages 13.2 points, was the third different Duke player to lead the team in scoring in conference play.

Point guard Greg Paulus, who averages 9.1 points and had 10 Thursday, scored 20 in Duke's 85-77 home loss to Maryland on Feb. 28 in the teams' most recent meeting. He had 12 in a 72-60 loss at Maryland on Feb. 11.

The Terps look to continue their solid play against the Blue Devils in College Park on Sunday.

Maryland has won four of its last six home games versus Duke, including two when the Blue Devils were ranked No. 1. Maryland last won consecutive games in the regular season over Top 10 opponents by defeating then-No. 2 Duke on Feb. 27, 2001 and then-No. 7 Virginia on Mar. 3.

Against North Carolina, forward James Gist had 22 points with 13 rebounds, and Greivis Vasquez had 12 points and 11 assists for Maryland, which shot 46.9 percent and held the Tar Heels to 38.0 percent shooting.

"I think our players really believed that if we could execute really good on offense, we had a chance to win the game,'' said Williams, whose team has won six of their last seven.

Vasquez, the 6-5 sophomore point guard who averages 16.6 points and 6.3 assists, had 13 points, 12 assists and nine rebounds in Maryland's most recent victory over Duke.