No. 3 Maryland Shows It Knows How to Finish

Juan Dixon said the impetus for No. 3 Maryland’s stunning comeback victory against No. 8 Virginia came at the least likely time--when the Cavaliers thought they had the game won.

Just over six minutes remained, and with Virginia having taken a four-point lead, Maryland Coach Gary Williams called a timeout, the crowd whipping into a frenzy as the Cavaliers triumphantly headed for the bench.

But Keith Jenifer and Travis Watson of Virginia stopped on their way to say something to Williams, leaving him incensed and his team determined.

“They thought they had the win,” Dixon said of Jenifer and Watson, “so I guess they wanted to show off a little bit. We wanted to protect our coach and we allowed that to motivate us and took it from there.”

The Terrapins fell even further behind, trailing by nine with 3:22 left, but scored 17 of the last 21 points, finally taking the lead on Dixon’s running one-hander with 31 seconds left, and getting a 91-87 victory at Charlottesville, Va.

The game marked only the second time in 156 meetings that both teams came into the game ranked in the Top 10, and both played like it.

Virginia took its big lead by scoring seven consecutive points, but Drew Nicholas made his only two field goals of the game, both three-point baskets, and the Terrapins went four of five from the free-throw line at the end to clinch it.

Byron Mouton led Maryland (17-3, 7-1 Atlantic Coast Conference) with 21 points, Dixon had 16 and Lonny Baxter had 14 points and 10 rebounds.

Roger Mason Jr. had 29 points for the Cavaliers (14-4, 4-4) and Watson had 19 points and 12 rebounds. Chris Williams added 13 points, but he missed four free throws and Watson missed three in the second half.

No. 1 Duke 87, North Carolina 58--Mike Dunleavy scored 23 points and Jason Williams had 18 at Chapel Hill, N.C., as the Blue Devils became the first opponent to win four consecutive games at the 16-year-old Smith Center.

Duke (19-1, 7-1 ACC), which has won seven consecutive, shot 61% in the first half and committed only two turnovers in taking a 48-35 lead. Coach Mike Krzyzewski took out his starters with three minutes left and Duke leading by 35 points.

Brian Morrison had 12 points for the Tar Heels (6-12, 2-6), who matched a season-high with 25 turnovers and dropped to 1-7 in January, their worst mark in that month since 1951.