COLLEGE PARK — It’s been a banner season for No. 22 Maryland, the hottest — and easily most surprising — team in the Atlantic Coast Conference.
The Terrapins moved into position to earn at least a share of the league regular-season title with their sixth straight victory, a rousing 79-72 conquest of hated Duke on Wednesday night. Maryland hasn’t finished in first place since 2002, when it parlayed that feat into a national championship.
In avenging an earlier 21-point defeat at Duke, the Terrapins blew a 14-point lead before breaking open a tight game with a closing 10-3 run that included a gutsy, highlight-reel basket by Greivis Vasquez.
“I’m really proud of this team. Everyone stayed tough,” coach Gary Williams said. “We wouldn’t let them get away from us. It was stuck there for a while because things weren’t going real well for us, but we fought through it.”
Sort of like the way Maryland bounced back from earlier losses to Wisconsin, William & Mary and, of course, the Blue Devils.
Led by seniors Vasquez, Eric Hayes and Landon Milbourne, the Terrapins (22-7, 12-3) are 8-0 in the ACC at home and a league-best 7-3 overall on the road. With a victory over Virginia on Saturday, Maryland can finish no worse than tied atop the standings with No. 4 Duke, which closes at home against North Carolina.
“We just have to make sure we go out there and get another win,” Milbourne said. “That’s one of the things Coach was talking about for this group right here — to get another banner put up. That’s a big goal, and that’s something we can get.”
Not bad for a team picked to finish fifth in a preseason poll of the ACC media.
“Preseason rankings don’t mean much,” Hayes said after scoring 13 points on 6-for-8 shooting. “If you work hard and believe in the guys on your team, you can do anything. So, it’s one of those things where we’re working hard and it’s been paying off.”
Freshman Jordan Williams contributed 15 points and 13 rebounds, but Vasquez is the driving force behind Maryland’s success. The spirited guard scored 20 points, and his final field goal at Comcast Center was typical of his body of work over the past four years.
With Maryland nursing a 71-69 lead, Vasquez drove toward the basket, stopped his dribble before the foul line, took two (maybe three) steps to his right and tossed up an off-balance shot with his right arm that bounced off the rim three times before falling through the net with 37 seconds left.
Vasquez watched the end result while stumbling backward off the court.
“I work on that shot, but God wanted me to score the way that I did,” he said. “I was on the floor, I was looking and going, ‘Please go in.”’
It wasn’t the most prudent shot to try with the outcome hanging in the balance, but that’s what distinguishes Vasquez from everyone else in the ACC. That, and the fact that ball went in the basket.
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