Second half leaves Terps feeling Blue

Inside the Comcast Center tunnel at halftime, the Terrapin men's basketball team huddled, pumping themselves up and getting ready to come back on the court with a nine-point lead.

"ONE, TWO, THREE - HARD WORK!" the players bellowed, before jogging onto the floor.

But it was Duke that worked harder than the Terps in the final 20 minutes, and it was Duke that escaped with a win.

Playing through foul trouble and a hostile crowd, the No. 4-ranked Blue Devils beat the Terps 93-84 last night. After arguably playing their best first half of the season, the Terps wilted in a second half where they were outscored 51-33. And when it mattered most down the stretch, the Terps were unable to come away with crucial defensive stops.

"I think we got a little bit satisfied with our lead," sophomore Landon Milbourne said. "I know we were pretty confident that we were gonna keep scoring, but we had a couple turnovers, they got a couple loose balls that we shoulda had, and they just took advantage of it. We just need to hustle more. Plain and simple - we got outhustled."

The Terps (12-8, 2-3 ACC) certainly played well enough to win, cutting a late nine-point deficit down to one possession. If nothing else, they can now look forward to a favorable conference schedule after back-to-back games against top-5 teams. And there is reason to be optimistic about the Terps, a thought that was far-fetched before winter break, after home losses to Ohio and American.

But even so, the Terps came into this game a confident team, expecting to come away with a better result.

"It ain't a good feeling at all," freshman forward Cliff Tucker said. "We had a really good chance of winning, and we didn't. It's a hard feeling losing to Duke."

The Terps played smarter than Duke (17-1, 5-0) in the first half, and it showed on the scoreboard, as they took a 51-42 lead into the locker room. Amidst the loudest home crowd of the year, the Terps played with more adrenaline, and it appeared as if the Blue Devils couldn't handle it.

Duke committed 13 fouls in the first half, and coach Mike Krzyzewski was assessed a technical foul toward the end of the first half. But in the second half, Duke looked like an entirely different team.

Duke scored six easy points off three Terp turnovers in the first 61 seconds of the second half, and a few minutes later, the Blue Devils regained the lead.

"That's Duke - it's the No. 3 team[according to a ESPN/USA Today poll] in the nation," senior forward James Gist said. "We gotta expect it. We come in the locker room at halftime, and everyone's kind of happy that we went on a nice run and we maintained our play in the first half, but you gotta know that they're over there probably getting cussed out in the locker room, and that they're going to come out and play like the No. 3 team that they are.

"Everybody has to expect that. I think we took that for granted, and we didn't come out as tough, and they took advantage of that. They did what they're supposed to do."

Both teams traded blows and took turns holding the lead until Duke pulled away with about six minutes left. Leading 84-78 with 4:21 remaining, the Blue Devils were able to maintain the lead due to their rebounding. They scooped eight of 11 rebounds in the waning minutes to secure the victory.

"We were still in position with about four minutes left, I thought, where we could have won the game," coach Gary Williams said. "But they got a couple possessions they shouldn't have had, and there's the game."

Like in the win against then-No. 1 North Carolina, the Terps played their best basketball inside. Gist (26 points) and Bambale Osby (20 points) had no trouble scoring easy layups and dunks, and Greivis Vasquez (15 points) was able to penetrate all night.

But the Terps could not hit many baskets from the outside, while the Blue Devils' guards were on fire - especially in the second half. Gerald Henderson and DeMarcus Nelson combined for 50 points on 19-of-31 shooting in the game.

"It's the most impressive half of the season," Krzyzewski said of his team. "We had some adversity, and whenever a team handles adversity in a positive way and turns it into a victory, it's always very gratifying."

The Terps did not help themselves by turning the ball over 22 times and only hitting 18-of-27 free throws. But even with the offensive miscues, the Terps agreed that they lost this game on the other end of the court during a rough second half.

"We could have won this game on the defensive end," Gist said. "I mean, defense wins games. It was just a matter of us coming out here and getting the stops that we need. We gave up some key rebounds and some loose balls, and that was the difference from the first half and the second half."

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