1990 Duke at Maryland Men's Basketball

Cole Field House

College Park, MD

February 10, 1990

Duke Blue Devils at Maryland Terrapins

Maryland was 12-9 (3-5 ACC) and Duke was 18-4 (7-2 ACC) coming into this game. Both teams were coming off of losses. The Blue Devils had won the first match up with the Terrapins 91-80 at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

The video I watched of this game included all the halftime commentary. There was a brief glimpse of the halftime show which was the University of Maryland's Gymkana club. On the whole the recording of this game was nice and crisp for a YouTube video but not quite good enough to blow up on a big screen TV.

Maryland came out strong in the first half, even though they were coming off of back to back home losses to Georgia Tech and Clemson. Christian Laettner tripped and landed hard on his right knee on the first posession of the game. He was out for a couple plays but he came back in fairly quickly. Maryland took the lead early. Duke stepped up their play on the defense and got back into the game but Maryland stayed ahead pushing the lead up to as many as 10 points. They two teams continued to battle it out but Maryland held on to the lead and at halftime it was 43-38 in the Terps favor.

The Terps were ahead at the half but they didn't dominate the game. It looked like they were playing just a little better than the Blue Devils. Maryland continued to play well in the early going of the second half and extended their lead to 10 points by the first TV time out. Maryland held on to the lead. Every time Duke chipped into the lead Maryland came back and stretched it back out.

Walt Williams picked up his 4th foul with just under 12 minutes to in the ball game. Maryland still had the lead with about 7 and a half minutes to go and the score 75-70. The Terps pushed the lead up to 11 and kept it there for a minute or two. Duke was still unable to even the score. Maryland was up by 10, 86-76, with 4 minutes to go.

Duke turned up the heat at that point and outscored the Terps 10-2. Walt Williams fouled out of the game. Gary Williams called a time out. Maryland came back from the time out no fresher than they were before. Duke continued to force turnovers and score off of them and finally took the lead 90-88. Tony Massenburg fouled out at about that point, having scored 28 points and grabbed 11 rebounds. Jesse Martin fouled out with about a minute to go in the game and the Blue Devils in the lead 92-88.

The Terps got the ball and Evers Burns scored a basket in the paint to cut the Blue Devils lead to 2 points with 47 seconds to go. Duke pushed the lead to 3 with a free throw. Maryland got the ball after the second free throw was missed and came down and scored a relatively quick basket to cut the lead to 1. Maryland managed to get the ball again with less than 20 seconds to go but were unable to make a basket.

Duke got the ball and Maryland fouled with just 2 seconds to go, sending Bobby Hurley to the line to shoot a 1 and 1. Hurley hit both baskets giving Duke a 3 points lead with still just 2 seconds left on the clock. Mustaff inbounded the ball throwing it three-quarters of the way down the court. Two Terps touched the ball and somehow the second one (Teon McCoy) got the shot off before the buzzer sounded and sank the 3 point shot. The game was tied, 95-95, and Duke Coach Krzyzewski was irate.

A few things happened in the last 4 minutes of regulation that contributed to the Blue Devils resurgence. It didn't help that Walt Williams fouled out before the four minute mark or that Massenburg and Martin fouled out before the end of regulation. The Terps were outscored 19-9 in the last four minutes of regulation. If the Terps just could have held on to the ball and not turned it over quite so much in those last four minutes they might have been able to hold on to the lead and win it. The Blue Devils played smarter and it showed on the court and in the statistics.

Should the 3-pointer have counted at the end of regulation that threw the game into overtime? Maybe, maybe not. There was no instant replay in college basketball for moments like this, at this time. It looked like the ball was leaving Teon McCoy's hands as the buzzer sounded but that's just an educated guess on my part. I think the rule was that the ball had to be in the air when the buzzer begins to sound. Because there was no instant replay it came down to the referee making the call and it was pretty clear that the ref called it as coming before the buzzer at the time it happened.

Overtime opened with just 2 of Maryland's starters (Mustaff, McCoy) still in the game. Maryland actually looked stronger in the first minute or two of overtime than they did in the last four minutes of regulation. They scored seven more points in overtime than they did in the last four minutes of overtime. The Terps foul trouble continues to plague them Mustaf and McCoy both picked up their 4th fouls and then with a minute or less to go in the game McCoy fouled out. Duke was just a little too strong and the Terps, without their starting line up, didn't have the experience or the skill to match the Blue Devils. The final score was 114-111.

I was at this game. It was wild ride with a sad ending. I didn't recall how many of the Terps fouled out of the game. The Terrapins looked like they had the Blue Devils right where they wanted them for the first 36 minutes of regulation. It was bittersweet to re-watch this game.

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Maryland won 5 of their remaining 7 games in the regular season. They played Duke again in the first round of the ACC Tournament and lost by 20 points. They did not get a bid to the NCAA Tournament. The team was invited to play in the NIT. They played two Atlantic-10 teams in the NIT. They beat UMass by 10 in the first round, at Cole Field House. I went to that game. They lost in the next round at Penn State.