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Maryland Vs. Duke: After Intense Half, Duke Pulls Away From Maryland With 40-33 Lead

After an action packed first half that is typical of this intense rivalry, the Terps go into the locker room against their arch rival Duke Blue Devils trailing 40-33.

As expected, the game got off to an intense start as both teams traded punches early. At the midway point in the first half however, things started going against Maryland. The Terps were unable to get it going using the three ball, as the team went 0-3 in the first half. Because of that, Duke went on a 23-7 run after Maryland had a 16-15 lead. The Terps then closed the half on a 10-2 run to cut the Duke lead to to just seven points.

Maryland's leading scorer is, no surprise, Jordan Williams. The sophmore put up 11 points in the half, with the rest of the contributions relatively even throughout the rest of the Terps squad.  Maryland is also doing surprisingly well at the free throw line, as they went 13 for 15 from the line, with Williams going 7 for 8.

In the second half, the Terps know they will need to play better perimeter defense, as Duke is playing the inside-out game with their shooters to get wide open three pointers. Maryland will also need to rebound better, as they have been giving up too many second chance points on the defensive side of the ball. On the offensive side of the floor, someone on Maryland needs to find their groove from the outside, as the majority of Maryland's field goals have come inside the paint. They can't simply rely on Williams to score.

Lastly, with the Terps closing the half on a strong note, they will need to keep the intensity up, keep the crowd into it, and feed off of that energy. If they can do that, then perhaps they can come back and pull off the upset.