At first the crowd oohed and aahed in wonderment of what this precocious visitor was doing. Soon any lingering appreciation vanished as the voices turned angry, then agonized.

“Who IS this guy?”

Cameron Crazies, meet Juan Dixon, destroyer of all Duke holds sacred — including the Blue Devils’ 18-game win streak, record-setting 31-game victory streak in Atlantic Coast Conference contests and mind-boggling 46-game winning streak at home.

Maryland’s 6-foot-3 sophomore guard finished an amazing 14-for-19 from the field to tie a career high with 31 points. When he was finished for the night, so was Duke, a 98-87 loser to theTerrapins.

“Dixon was fabulous. Not good, or really good. He was fabulous,”Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski said. “That’s the best performance against us this year by an individual. It was beautiful to watch, really. You have to give credit when a kid plays great like that.”

On a night that saw both teams shoot better than 53 percent from the field, Dixon managed an unheard of 74-percent clip. Few of those were gimmes. He knocked down leaners in the lane, pullups on the fast break and shots over the trees in the low post.

Dixon’s 12 points at halftime helped theTerrapins to a 47-45 lead. Duke, despite a heroic 28-point effort from junior forward Shane Battier, couldn’t pull away late in the game because Dixon couldn’t miss.

“It seemed like every time I hit a shot, he hit a shot,” Battier said. “We try to rely on our tough pressure defense and we gave Dixon a lot of looks and he made some tough shots.”

Even the easy shots don’t always goes in for Dixon. He entered the game 10th in the ACC in field-goal percentage at .457. In the first meeting between the two schools, Dixon only shot 6-for-18 and scored 13 points, six below his season average.

While the off night earlier in the year helped the Blue Devils to an 80-70 win in College Park, Dixon’s play down the stretch Wednesday more than made amends.

Duke, ranked third in the nation at 18-3 overall and 9-1 in the ACC, led 77-74 with seven minutes remaining when Dixon sliced through the lane for a layup and answered a Battier basket with a jumper. He then gave theNo. 23 Terps an 80-79 lead on a pullup. After Duke missed the front end of a 1-and-1 chance at the free-throw line, the small guard put home a missed 3-pointer.

Maryland (17-6, 6-4) never trailed again.

“He falls down every once in a while and looks really bad, but when it comes time to get the ball in his hands, if there’s any open court at all, he’s really good,”Maryland head coach Gary Williams said. “He’s got that timing that all great shooters have. He seems to get open easier than other guys and it’s his ability to get the defensive players off balance.”

But that’s not supposed to happen against Duke. Especially not at Duke.

“He got in a groove and he was tough to stop. He ran me a lot tonight and kind of tired me out,”Blue Devil senior Chris Carrawell said. “I’ve got to play Dixon and then concentrate on offense, and tonight it just didn’t happen.”

Because Dixon was happening.

“He ran off screens and I got switched off of him a couple times and whoever was guarding him, he made them pay. Then when I got him he made me pay. He made everybody pay tonight.”

Even the fans, who should’ve paid for a program before the game to identify that pesky little guard wearing No. 3.