Stride for stride, basket for basket, theTerrapins stood with Duke in a hostile, worried Cameron Indoor Stadium, then cruised right on by for a shocking win over the third-ranked team in the nation.

Not only did the No. 23 Terps celebrate a huge 98-87 win in the Atlantic Coast Conference, they proved the Blue Devils aren’t perfect. For the first time in 18 straight games, for the first time in 31 straight ACC games, and for the first time in 46 straight home games, Duke lost.

“We were trying like crazy. It just wasn’t there. We didn’t have enough,”Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski said. “They (Maryland) had high energy. They looked really fresh and determined. We just couldn’t stop them.”

Maryland (17-6 overall, 6-4 ACC) shot 54 percent from the field and sophomore guard Juan Dixon tied his career high with 31 points. Center Lonny Baxter added 22 points and Terence Morris erased a slow start with two clutch 3-pointers to end with 20. Guard Danny Miller also scored 16 points on 4-for-4 shooting from the 3-point arc.

“It wasn’t going to be, ‘Terence Morris played well or Lonny Baxter played well,’ it was going to be, ‘We played well as a team,’”Maryland head coach Gary Williams said. “I thought that’s what we did early and that gave us the confidence that we could play with Duke tonight.”

When the Blue Devils (18-3, 9-1) tried to run away from Maryland, it didn’t work. Duke Junior ShaneBattier scored 18 of his 28 points in the first half, including a 3-pointer at the 9:38 mark that had the Devils up 33-26.

Instead of buckling under the pressure, Maryland turned two Duke miscues and two missed shots into an 11-0 run to steal a 37-33 advantage.

“Maryland just came out very aggressive early on and we didn’t set the tempo and stop them,”Battier said. “It was the theme for the game.”

Duke trailed 47-45 at halftime despite shooting 58 percent in th first half. Twelve turnovers, nearly half by freshman point guard Jason Williams, led to 13 Maryland points. Between the fastbreak chances and wide-open shots Duke allowed, the Terps had that halftime lead because of their equally impressive 50 percent shooting.

“If you don’t play defense, anybody can score,”BlueDevil junior Nate James said. “We let them catch, we let them get in position where they can score, we don’t put any kind of intensity behind our defense. It’s like going out there in shoot-around. I think that’s how easy we made it for them.”

Nothing improved in the second half. Maryland connected on six of its first eight shots as Baxter dominated the low post with six straight points. When he picked up his third foul with 16 minutes to go, he took a seat on the bench and watched Dixon take over.

Dixon connected on back-to-back possessions to put Maryland up 67-60 at the 13:07 mark before Duke came storming back.

Carrawell hit a 3, Mike Dunleavy tipped in a miss and Carlos Boozer recorded a layup for a 7-0 run that tied the game.

A Battier 3 put the BlueDevils ahead, but the excitement was short-lived. Morris connected from the arc after a 4-for-13 start from the field. The return of his shooting touch proved to be the difference.

“Terence had really good looks and he knew it. At halftime he was really upset that he didn’t put the ball in the basket more,”Williams said. “In the second half he was incredible.”

Battier connected on a 3-pointer with eight minutes to play to give Duke a 75-72 lead, and he added a shot across the lane a minute later. But Dixon scored eight straight points to put his team ahead 82-79 with 5:22 left.

“We had a chance when we went up 75-72,”Krzyzewski said. “At that point we have a chance to kind of steal a win. We’re playing hard, but we didn’t have that edge that you needed at that point and really at times throughout that game.”

Dixon provided the final blows when he drove the lane, gathered a crowd of Duke defenders and kicked the ball out to Morris for a pair of wide-open 3-pointers. The first score erased an 83-all tie. The second, followed quickly by a Steve Blake jumper, had the lead jump to 91-83.

It was then that reality set in for the 9,314 fans in Cameron. As they silently filed out of the building, they realized they had witnessed their first home loss since Wake Forest’s 81-69 win on Jan. 11, 1997.

“Sorry it had to happen on our home court, but that’s how it goes some times,”Carrawell said.

“The streak ended, it’s over, we don’t have to talk about it any more.