By David Ginsburg
Associated Press
DURHAM — Duke’s Plumlee brothers were double trouble — make that double-double trouble — for Maryland.
Miles Plumlee had 13 points and a career-high 22 rebounds and younger brother Mason also had a double-double in the 10th-ranked Blue Devils’ 73-55 victory over the Terrapins on Saturday.
“We played with energy, we played hard and when we do that, we’re going to play hard on offense and defense,” Miles Plumlee said. “It showed up in the little things. We got loose balls, offensive boards and we just put the game away.”
Mason Plumlee finished with 16 points and 10 rebounds while Miles had the most rebounds of any player in Hall of Fame coach Mike Krzyzewski’s 37-year career.
“And I told Miles, ‘I’ve coached some pretty good players,’” Krzyzewski quipped.
It was the first time both Plumlee brothers had double-doubles in the same game during their three seasons together at Duke. Their 32 combined rebounds were one fewer than the entire Maryland team.
“The Plumlee brothers were dominant,” Maryland coach Mark Turgeon said. “Their big guys kicked our big guys’ tails.”
Seth Curry scored 19 points to help the Blue Devils (21-4, 8-2 Atlantic Coast Conference) pull away. They followed up their last-second victory over rival North Carolina with their fifth straight victory in the series.
They built a 48-33 rebounding advantage but struggled to separate themselves on the scoreboard until they closed the game with a 13-2 run.
Nick Faust scored 15 points but Terrell Stoglin, the ACC’s leading scorer, finished with 13 — nine below his average — on 4-of-16 shooting with some questionable shot selection for the Terps (14-10, 4-6).
“They just weren’t going to let Terrell beat them,” Turgeon said. “That’s the reason (Krzyzewski) has won 900-something games. He’s not a dummy. They weren’t going to let Terrell beat them, and he can’t handle it, and then we get frustrated because he throws out of the double team, and guys aren’t making plays.”
Playing their first game since starting point guard Pe’Shon Howard was lost for the season with a torn right knee ligament, they were just 1 of 14 from 3-point range, missing their first 10, and lost their third in four games.
Still, they kept themselves in it for much of the way. Faust’s jumper in the lane with 5 minutes left pulled Maryland to 60-53, but the Terrapins managed just one field goal the rest of the way.
Meanwhile, Austin Rivers countered with a free throw and a deep 3, Curry had a pretty drive down the lane and Miles Plumlee followed Curry’s missed jumper with an authoritative slam that made it 68-53 with 1:30 left.
“We were able to get good stops and streak them together and make a run,” Curry said. “We kind of dominated, got the crowd into it and (pushed) the lead up.”
Rivers, whose buzzer-beating 3 gave Duke an 85-84 victory over the Tar Heels, finished with 11 points for the Blue Devils.
Mychal Parker added 12 points for Maryland.
Duke broke out its new gray uniforms — their manufacturer calls it “platinum” — with “Blue Devils” replacing the school’s name on the front and the years of their four national championships in barely visible stars along the back shoulders.
But for a while in this one, they looked like the same team that hasn’t played particularly well lately at Cameron.
Duke entered having lost two of its last three home games and the only win there in that stretch — a close victory over St. John’s — felt like a loss to Krzyzewski. Neither team led this one by more than seven points in the opening half, and Duke was up 32-29 at the break after starting 1-for-10 from the field.
“I felt that initially, today, they wanted it too much and they were into themselves a little bit more than being outward, and they finally kind of got outward,” Krzyzewski said. “That was easier to do (at UNC) because there were 25,000 people there against you and you have to be together and you have to talk or else you’re going to get annihilated.”