The Duke men’s basketball team played very little defense on Friday night and lost to Maryland, 83-74, in the ACC Men’s Basketball Tournament quarterfinals. The Blue Devils never led in the game and now must await Selection Sunday to see if they still garner a number one seed.
It started from the very beginning when Ryan Kelly tried to guard Maryland’s Dez Wells. That didn’t go so well. Wells ended up scoring a game-high 30 points on 9-of-13 shooting. After Kelly failed, Tyler Thornton tried and also failed.
The Terps shot 51 % from the field and out-rebounded the Blue Devils 36-26.
It must have been the haircuts, as all three Duke seniors cut their locks and had subpar games. Kelly only scored eight points on 3-of-11 shooting. He only had three rebounds. Seth Curry scored 15 points, but only made 4-of-10 shots. Mason Plumlee led the Blue Devils with 19 points, but committed four turnovers and once again struggled against Maryland’s Alex Len.
The bright spot for Duke is that Rasheed Sulaimon looks like he has regained his confidence. In the first half, he single-handedly kept the Blue Devils in the game. He finished with 16 points on 6-of-12 shooting.
In other ACC Tournament action…
Miami surged late to beat upset-minded Boston College, 69-58. It was all about Shane Larkin on Friday. The sophomore scored 15 of his 20 points in the second half, as the Hurricanes shot over 70% in the final half. He also played stifling defense on BC’s Olivier Hanlan, who dropped 40 points the night before (he missed five of his final six shots).
Once again, BC struggled to start, being down 21-8 to start. But they fought back to lead 27-25 at the half. Ryan Anderson led the offense with 14 points. Patrick Heckmann finished with 15 points in the loss.
The Hurricanes will face NC State on Saturday afternoon (1pm ET), as the Wolfpack blew away Virginia, 75-56. The loss may have ruined UVA’s chances of making the NCAA Tournament. For NC State, they wanted the rematch against the top seeded Hurricanes, as they lost during the regular season on a last second tip-shot without guard Lorenzo Brown.
The Cavaliers supposedly have a very good three point defense, but they regularly left sharp-shooter Scott Wood open, as he buried them for 23 points.
CJ Leslie recorded a double-double: 17 points and 11 rebounds, and TJ Warren scored 18 points in the win.
All-ACC first teamer Joe Harris was held to 13 points on just 4-of-13 shooting in the loss.
In the night cap, North Carolina blew away Florida State, 83-62 and move on to the semifinals to face Maryland (3pm ET). The Tarheels went on a 13-0 run early in the second half to put the game away. They also made ten 3-pointers and scored 27 points off 18 FSU turnovers.
PJ Hairston scored 21 points, but suffered a tear on his hand and may not play in Saturday afternoon’s semifinal. Reggie Bullock took over the scoring in the second half, as he scored a total of 17 points.
In the loss, Michael Snaer scored 20 points and left with less than two minutes to go after fouling out. The senior received a standing ovation from his teammates.
