Jan. 27, 2001

Box Score| Quotes| Notes

By JIM O'CONNELL
AP Basketball Writer

COLLEGE PARK, Md. - Duke added another chapter to its basketball history.

The second-ranked Blue Devils overcame a 10-point deficit in the final 54 seconds of regulation and went on to a 98-96 overtime victory over No. 8 Maryland on Saturday night.

"I'm speechless right now," said Shane Battier, who scored Duke's last six points in overtime. "The fortitude of this team is unbelievable."

The victory extended Duke's Atlantic Coast Conference-record road winning streak to 23 games and was their fourth in as many years in Cole Field House. The Blue Devils have won 53 of their last 55 ACC regular-season games.

"It's an amazing win for us," Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "I'm anxious to see the tape to see the plays we made."

It seemed Duke (19-1, 7-0) would see those road streaks ended when it trailed 90-80 with a minute left in regulation. That's when Jason Williams went to work.

The sophomore guard, who was averaging 23.8 points over his last 13 games, scored eight points - including two 3-pointers - in a 13-second span to get the Blue Devils within 90-88 with 41 seconds to play.

Maryland (14-5, 5-2) turned the ball over with 35 seconds left. Mike Dunleavy missed a 3-pointer for Duke, but Nate James grabbed the rebound, was fouled and made two free throws to tie the game for the first time since 26-26.

Maryland had a final chance in regulation but Drew Nicholas' 3-point attempt from the corner bounced off the rim.

"I'm still in awe and will be all night," Williams said. "It was one of those games where everything, everything was going Maryland's way.

"We had a team huddle with 54 seconds left and we could hear the Maryland fans chanting `Over-rated,"' Williams said. "We said we are not overrated, we are the Duke team we think we are and we made one of those runs."

Duke, which has won nine straight since losing by one point to No. 1 Stanford, took the lead for good when Battier started his game-closing run with a 3-pointer with 3:52 to play. Juan Dixon scored for Maryland 16 seconds later, but Battier restored the three-point lead with two free throws with 2:02 left.

Tahj Holden made two free throws for Maryland with 1:44 left, but Duke was then able to get five consecutive shots without the Terrapins getting possession before Battier was fouled with 16 seconds left and made one free throw.

Maryland's chance to tie ended when Dixon drove to the basket and his shot with four seconds left was blocked by Battier.

"I knew he was going to take the last shot and I knew he was going to try and get fouled," Battier said. "I didn't even really have to move and then swatted it away."

The win was the fourth straight and 13th in the last 15 games in Cole Field House for Duke, which last lost a conference road game on Feb. 5, 1998, at North Carolina.

Even when the Terrapins had the double-digit lead with a minute left to play in regulation, the sellout crowd of 14,500 seemed to be waiting for one of Duke's famous runs.

The Blue Devils waited 39 minutes for one, but it was huge.

Williams finished with 25 points and Battier had 20. Dunleavy had 18 points for the Blue Devils, while James added 16 and Carlos Boozer 15.

Dixon finished with 17 points to lead the Terrapins, while Holden had 14, Byron Mouton and Terence Morris added 13 each and Steve Blake had 11.

"We were playing well until the last minute. It's one of our hardest losses," said Blake, who had nine assists. "No matter who we were playing, we should have won."

Duke got within 51-45 3 1/2 minutes into the second half, but Maryland went on a 7-2 run to stretch the lead to 58-47 with 13:16 to play.

Duke, which leads the nation with 10.6 3-pointers, was still within striking distance when James hit a 3 with 7:49 left to make it 74-67.

But Lonny Baxter scored down low, Morris dunked a rebound on the break and Danny Miller laid in a lob pass from Blake to give the Terrapins an 80-67 lead with 5:12 left.

It was only the second time this season the Blue Devils trailed at halftime and the other was a 35-34 deficit to Illinois.

"Because of how well Maryland played this is a great comeback," Krzyzewski said. "We feel fortunate to have won."

Dunleavy tied the game at 26 with a free throw with 8:21 left in the first half and then Maryland went on the 11-0 run which was capped by a 3-pointer by Dixon with 5:22 left.

The lead reached 41-29 - Duke's biggest deficit of the season - on Miller's drive with 4:02 to play and Mouton's 3-pointer with 2:39 left made it 44-29.

Battier's 3-pointer with 1:29 left made it 44-33 and was Duke's first field goal in a span of 7:51 during which the Terrapins outscored the Blue Devils 20-5.

Duke closed the half by scoring the last four points, the final two on a drive by Williams on a pass from Dunleavy that went three-quarters of the court after the officials put 1.4 seconds back on the clock, ruling Maryland had committed a 35-second shot clock violation before time expired.

"We got tentative out there," Maryland coach Gary Williams said. "It's very disappointing, but as I said before the game, I've been here before. You can't let this take away from your next nine ACC games."