Terps Hit The Road To Take on No. 2 Duke At Cameron

Jan. 24, 2005

COLLEGE PARK, Md. - The Maryland basketball team (11-5, 2-3 ACC) heads to Durham, N.C., for a Wednesday night matchup with the No. 2/2 Duke Blue Devils (15-0, 5-0 ACC) at Cameron Indoor Stadium. Maryland looks to upset Duke's perfect start and snap its 10-game home win streak, facing the Blue Devils at Cameron at 9 p.m. in what has been college basketball's hottest rivalry for the past several years. Maryland meets Duke in a nationally-televised contest on ESPN, with Mike Patrick and Dick Vitale calling the action and Doris Burke reporting from the sidelines.

The Terps-Devils matchup features the ACC's longest-tenured head coaches, and the only two mentors in the league that have captured the NCAA title. Terrapin head coach Gary Williams currently owns the second-most victories among all current league coaches, and a win on Wednesday would put him in fifth place outright on the ACC's all-time victories list. Williams is currently tied with former Virginia head coach Terry Holland (1974-1990) with 326 victories as head coaches of their respective ACC programs. A victory would also put Williams into fourth place outright in terms of victories over ACC league teams. Williams currently owns 134 wins at Maryland over teams in the ACC, while former Georgia Tech head coach Bobby Cremins totaled 134 from 1982-2000 with the Yellow Jackets.

After winning a pair of home contests over Temple and ACC border rival Virginia, the Terrapins fell to NC State, 85-69, on Sunday evening. Junior Nik Caner-Medley led the Terps with a 15-point, 10-rebound effort , marking the fourth double-double of his career and the fourth straight game in which he has paced the Terps in scoring. Four Terrapins finished in double-figures, shooting 52 percent and outscoring the Wolfpack by ten points in the second half, and reducing what was a 28-point deficit to 10 twice, but it was not enough for the victory. John Gilchrist contributed 13 points, Chris McCray added 11 and six rebounds, and Travis Garrison chipped in 11 as well. Ekene Ibekwe scored eight points and grabbed eight rebounds as the Terps beat the Wolfpack on the glass, 37-32.

Duke, at 15-0, is one of only three still-undefeated teams in the nation. The Blue Devils are coming off a pair of victories on their Sunshine State road trip, a 92-83 victory at Miami on Jan. 19 and an 88-56 drubbing of Florida State in Tallahassee. At FSU, ACC leading scorer J.J. Redick (21.7 ppg) netted a season-high 31 points after drilling eight 3-pointers, while senior guard Daniel Ewing scored 14 and big man Shelden Williams posted a double-double of 11 points and 13 rebounds. The last time the Blue Devils fell at Cameron Indoor Stadium was on March 3, 2004, when then-No. 19/22 Georgia Tech handed Duke a 76-68 loss.

The Terrapins trail in the all-time series by a 99-56 margin, but have scored at least one victory over Duke in eight of the last ten seasons. The teams split the four regular-season series in 2000, 2001, 2002 and 2003, and after Duke won both regular-season matchups a season ago, the Terps posted the 95-87 overtime victory over the Blue Devils in the 2004 ACC title game. Wednesday marks the 15th meeting between the two teams in the last six seasons.

Terp Streaks & Storylines

Under head coach Gary Williams, Maryland has defeated Duke six times as a Top 10 team, including three victories in which the Blue Devils were ranked No. 1 or No. 2. The Terrapins posted a 91-80 victory at No. 2 Duke on Feb. 27, 2001.

Terrapin junior forward Nik Caner-Medley leads the Terps in scoring at 16.9 ppg, after netting 21 points at Wake Forest (Jan. 11), 36 at home vs. Temple (Jan. 15) 26 vs. Virginia (Jan. 19) and 15 against NC State (Jan. 23). He is averaging 24.3 ppg across the last four games, shooting .562 from the field while grabbing 8.0 rebounds per game, dishing 2.5 assists, making 1.5 steals and rejecting 1.0 shots. Caner-Medley has led the Terps in scoring seven times this season, has scored more than 20 points in three of the past four games and posted a double-double of 15 points and 10 rebounds in his last outing.

Junior point guard John Gilchrist has averaged 15.2 points, 4.2 rebounds, 5.1 assists and 1.3 steals over the last 12 games, all while shooting 54 percent from the field and hitting at a 43 percent mark from long-range. He currently is second in the ACC in assist-to-turnover ratio (2.35) and third in assists (5.6 apg). Gilchrist, a preseason Naismith and Wooden All-American, is 19th in the league in scoring at 14.4 ppg and tied for 11th in field goal percentage (.465).

Sophomore D.J. Strawberry, who was among the ACC's steals leaders with 24 on the year, will miss the remainder of the basketball season with a torn anterior cruciate ligament (ACL). Starting two-guard Chris McCray (12.3 ppg, .478 FG pct., .907 FT pct.) missed the Temple game with a bruised tailbone, but courageously came back to action against Virginia and NC State, combining to score 23 points (11.5 ppg) with 13 rebounds (6.5 rpg), six (3.0 apg) assists and three steals (1.5 spg). Smooth-shooting sophomore guard Mike Jones averaged 11.7 points in the three games prior to NC State. Jones hit 48 percent of his shots and drilled 55 percent (6-of-11) from long range in the past four games.

This Terrapin team, who as a team have made comeback after comeback over the last 14 months, won two games during their three-game homestand and look to bounce back from their loss to NC State. After trailing by as many as 28 points, the Terps cut the Wolfpack lead to 10 twice during the second half. The Terrapins were 52 percent from the floor in the second half after shooting only 25 percent in the first period. Caner-Medley, for example, was 0-for-6 in the first half and 5-for-6 in the second period. In addition, after trailing the Wolfpack on the boards by three in the first half, the Terrapins went on to outrebound the Pack by eight in the second stanza and finished the game with a 37-32 advantage.

At 83.8 points per game, the Terps own one of the most potent scoring offenses in the nation. Maryland is fifth in the NCAA (Jan. 17), trailing only North Carolina, Washington, Niagara and Wake Forest in terms of scoring output. The Terps are ranked third in the ACC in scoring offense, behind only UNC and Wake.

Maryland has made a significant improvement at the free throw line, tied for third in the 11-team ACC with a .705 mark from the line after finishing ninth (.631) in 2003-04. Chris McCray is tied for ninth in the nation and second in the league with a .907 (39-for-43) mark from the line.

Terrapin head coach Gary Williams owns a career record of 533-298 overall, making him the 14th-winningest active coach in America. He is 326-170 in his 16th season as the head coach at Maryland and only six coaches in college basketball history have captured as many victories as the leader of a program in the Atlantic Coast Conference. Williams totals 26 NCAA Tournament victories and is 22-10 at Maryland for a .688 NCAA winning percentage.

Last March, Williams led his Terrapins to the 2004 ACC Tournament championship with a victory over Duke, giving Maryland its first ACC title since 1984. The Terrapins became one of only three teams in ACC Tournament history to knock off the top three seeds when they downed No. 3 Wake Forest (87-86), No. 2 NC State (85-82) and No. 1 Duke (95-87 (ot) en route to an automatic bid and No. 4 seed in the NCAA Tournament.

On Deck

The Terps return home for a meeting with 2004 national finalist Georgia Tech on Sunday, Jan. 30. The game will be nationally televised on FOX Sports Net.

Two road games follow for the Terrapins, beginning with a quick turnaround trip to Clemson. Maryland takes on the Tigers at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 1, before traveling to new ACC for Miami on Saturday, Feb. 5 at 3 p.m.

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