No. 2 Duke Dumps Terps

Maryland had to make some choices against No. 2 Duke. The Terrapins chose wrong Wednesday night.

The Blue Devils rocked No. 7 Maryland 95-77 and set a record for the best start in school history behind Shane Battier's career-high 27 points.

"My job is to try to find the cracks in the defense and exploit them," said Battier, who was 10-for-13 from the field with a career-high 4-of-4 from 3-point range. "I could tell they really didn't respect my jump shot."

Maryland coach Gary Williams just shook his head after the game when asked about Battier's unlikely offensive outburst.

"We were really trying to take either (William) Avery or (Trajan) Langdon out of the game," Williams said. "If you look at their stats, they were the guys who really shot well from the 3-point line."

"I saw the ones (Battier) made against Clemson and all of that, but we're supposed to give him shots. He wasn't supposed to be open like he was, especially after he made a couple. We said, `It might be a good idea to cover him.' We didn't get him covered."

The victory came two days after previously unbeaten and No. 1 Connecticut lost at home. A win at Georgia Tech on Saturday should give Duke (22-1, 10-0 Atlantic Coast Conference) the No. 1 ranking for the first time since Nov. 22.

The Blue Devils also won their 17th straight and 34th in a row at Cameron Indoor Stadium to take a commanding three-game lead in the ACC standings over the Terrapins (19-4, 7-3).

Battier, normally Duke's defensive stopper, led six players in double figures. His previous high was 18 against Maryland last year.

"He always kills Maryland," said teammate Chris Carrawell. "He was wide open, looks that you kill for. Those are open looks you die for. He knocked them down."

"Twenty-seven points from Battier is something you don't expect," said Maryland's Obinna Ekezie. "What can I say? You know it's going wrong for you when he has 27."

Steve Francis and Laron Profit led the Terrapins with 18 points each.

Duke led by 10 at halftime, but quickly took command of the game in the first 6:14 of the second period, going on a 22-8 run to grab a 72-48 lead.

Langdon, in a mini shooting slump, broke out with consecutive 3-pointers 19 seconds apart during the Duke run. Langdon was 6 of his last 23 3-pointers before hitting the pair that broke the game open.

Meanwhile, reserve Nate James added six points and Battier had five in the spurt as Duke ran its record to 28-5 against Maryland since 1985.

"I didn't think we were ready to come out at the start of the second half," Williams said. "Duke obviously takes you out of some things, but our shot selection was poor, we couldn't stop anybody, especially Battier, and they took us out quick."

Duke stretched its lead to 28 points with 10 minutes left as the Cameron Crazies chanted "overrated" at the Terrapins, who also lost to Duke by 18 at College Park, Md., on Jan. 3.

Duke's previous best start was in 1991-92 when the team began 21-1 en route to the national championship.

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