Duke won this game 22-10. The final score may have read 93-84, but the real margin of victory was 22-10. That was the discrepancy in turnovers - Duke forced 22, Maryland could muster only 10. Getting 12 free possessions was key in a game where Maryland got pretty much whatever it wanted inside. Duke's defense and defensive rotation is geared toward the perimeter, and Maryland was able to take advantage of weaknesses inside. Both Gist and Osby had impressive games, although Osby tired toward the end. Duke also got easy opportunities in transition that Maryland, for the most part, did not. Those easy opportunities helped Duke shoot better than any conference opponent thus far against the Terps defense. It was Maryland's worse defensive efficiency performance of the entire year, and the generosity of its offense is at least partially to blame.
The Devils set the tone for the second half by picking up three quick Maryland turnovers and six quick points. Even though Maryland kept scoring with relative ease, Duke had seized the momentum and held it for the rest of the game. As I was going back and inputting the play-by-play from the game, I was actually surprised to see how late it was that Duke got the lead back, and how much later it was until they had the lead for good - watching the game, it seemed like Duke was in control for much of the second half.
I'm in the process of switching my data entry to a web-based system (graciously designed and programmed by a good friend), and won't be able to update stats until everything is completely switched over, so the Duke stats will remain horribly out-of-date. Hopefully this will be ready to go after the UNC game next week, but it could take until tournament time to have everything running fully smoothly. My apologies.
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2 comments:
You run an excellent blog here, Paul. As a Maryland alumnus I have plenty of reasons, which I find all to be plenty accurate and legitimate, to hate Duke. But I have to say, you make your school look good with how perfectly professional and thorough this blog is.
Another blog that is on par with yours, though more limited to your #1 rival and not so much the entire ACC, is http://turtlewaxing.blogspot.com if you haven't heard of it. Keep up the great work - I really, really hate keeping a Duke blog on my list of favorites, but... I can suck it up.
Oh - and little joke there about the rivals thing, if you weren't sure :)
Thanks for the compliments. I think the begrudging appreciation from Maryland and UNC fans is one of the most satisfying things about running the site. Glad to have you reading, and thanks for the link to the Maryland site - hadn't seen it before.
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