Top 25 Roundup: No. 3 Terps upend No. 1 Duke

? No last-minute collapse. Not even a home loss.

Maryland finally beat Duke at Cole Field House and the venerable building claimed one more No. 1 victim.

Maryland's Lonny Baxter, top, battles for the ball against Duke's Chris Duhon. The third-ranked Terps beat the top-ranked Blue Devils, 87-73, on Sunday in College Park, Md.

The third-ranked Terrapins, who had lost four years in a row on their own floor to the Blue Devils, beat them 87-73 Sunday, the seventh time a top-ranked team lost in the building that is closing after this season.

“Every game you play here is special because it’s the last year here,” Maryland coach Gary Williams said. “You want to win each game. The situation makes it special. You don’t put special emphasis on it with your players because what if you lose? You just get ready to play.”

Williams didn’t do a good job of selling that attitude to his players.

“This whole week the coach has been uptight on us about Duke. Duke this, Duke that,” said sophomore Chris Wilcox, who had a career-high 23 points. “I just feel better for my coach because Coach wanted this win more than we did.”

Cole and Notre Dame’s Joyce Athletic Center had been tied with six No. 1 losses, but the Terrapins (21-3, 11-1 Atlantic Coast Conference) made sure there was no heartache like last season with the convincing win.

Last year, the Terrapins lost 98-96 to Duke at home in overtime when they squandered a 10-point lead with a minute left in regulation. The Blue Devils won three of four against Maryland last season, including in the NCAA semifinals, rallying from a 22-point deficit on the way to the national championship.

“We’re only moving about a half-mile and we’re still on campus,” Williams said of the $101 million Comcast Center which will replace the 46-year-old Cole Field House. “Any time you can beat a No. 1 team like Duke it’s a great win. Duke is Duke. They’ve earned it. They’ve been the best team in college basketball. That makes it special.”

Maryland made it almost impossible to blow a lead this time, going up by 25 points three times, the last at 68-43 with 9:55 to play, on the way to improving to 13-0 at home this season.

Duke (23-2, 11-2) did get within 11 twice, the last time at 81-70 with 2:09 left.

But Juan Dixon hit a short jumper with 1:47 left and Lonny Baxter added two free throws 14 seconds later to make it 85-70 and the party started in Cole.

Dixon had 17 points for Maryland, which continued its best conference start with its eighth straight win, and Byron Mouton had 15.

“This is the first time we’ve beaten Duke here since I’ve been here and it’s a tremendous feeling,” said Dixon, one of Maryland’s three senior starters.

Wilcox had 11 rebounds and Baxter had 11 points and 10 rebounds. Steve Blake had eight points and 13 assists, one off his career-high and the school record.

Carlos Boozer had 19 points and 12 rebounds for the Blue Devils, who had won 11 straight since their only loss to Florida State. Mike Dunleavy added 15 points and 11 rebounds and Jason Williams had 17 points.

“The team that should have won did win, and they won in convincing fashion,” Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said. “We made a good run in the end but the game was never in doubt. It was a winnable game in the last eight minutes but it was too big of a hump to get over.”

In the four games these teams played last season, the eventual loser led by at least 10 points in each game.

Maryland was up 10-2 within the opening four minutes Sunday, and the Terrapins’ biggest lead of the first half was 31-17 with 4:49 left on a jumper by Dixon.

Duke was within 38-29 at halftime and Maryland’s lead was still nine with 16:39 to play. The Terrapins then went on a 20-4 run for its first 25-point lead and the crowd of 14,500 had Cole shaking with every Maryland basket and every Duke miss or turnover. Dixon had seven points in the run and Wilcox had six.

Rutgers 64, No. 13 Miami 61

Piscataway, N.J. Jerome Coleman scored a career-high 30 points and Rutgers held off Miami when Darius Rice missed a potential game-tying three-pointer at the buzzer.

No. 19 Wake Forest 92, No. 15 Virginia 70

Winston-Salem, N.C. Darius Songaila scored a career-high 30 points on near-perfect shooting, and Craig Dawson added 17 as Wake Forest found its defense in a victory over Virginia. The Demon Deacons (18-8, 8-4) remained in third place in the Atlantic Coast Conference, snapping a four-game skid against ranked teams. Wake Forest had given up consecutive 100-point games for the first time since 1982-83, but held Virginia to 34 percent shooting while hitting 58 percent.

No. 22 Indiana 75, Michigan 55

Ann Arbor, Mich. Jarrad Odle, Jeff Newton and Kyle Hornsby scored 17 points each as Indiana beat Michigan to pull into a first-place tie in the Big Ten with Ohio State. The Hoosiers (17-8, 9-3) are seeking their first Big Ten title since 1993.