College Park, Md. ? Maryland’s victory over top-ranked Duke ensured there wouldn’t be an undefeated Division I team at the end of the season.

It also gave the Terrapins’ freshmen their first big college victory.

“Each team, each year has to get a watershed win,” Maryland coach Gary Williams said. “This certainly was a great win, because you’re playing against the best program in the nation over the last 15 years. They were ranked No. 1, and that just adds to it.”

Maryland started five seniors in Saturday’s 87-72 victory over visiting Duke. But all the points in the 10-0 second-half run that gave the Terrapins a 67-56 lead with 10:25 to play were scored by newcomers John Gilchrist and Jamar Smith.

“This feels really good. All you hear about in this league is Duke, Duke, Duke,” Maryland freshman Chris McCray said. “But we’ve got a good team, too. This was a good way for us to bounce back.”

The No. 17 Terrapins recovered from their first loss in 14 ACC games with a flourish, beating a No. 1 Duke for the second straight season.

Duke’s freshman-laden lineup lost for the first time after the opening the season 12-0.

The 1975-76 Indiana team is the last to go through a season without losing. That season, the Hoosiers won 32 games and gave Bob Knight his first national championship.

Saturday’s loss showed there’s still room for improvement for the Blue Devils.

“I would expect positives,” Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said when asked what his team could take from its first loss of the season. “I only expect my teams to react positively. We should come out and want to get better as a result of this.”

It was the first real road game for the Blue Devils (12-1, 3-1 Atlantic Coast Conference), whose best wins had been at home over Georgetown, Wake Forest and Virginia and on neutral courts against UCLA and Ohio State.

“Any loss is disheartening and disappointing,” said freshman J.J. Redick, Duke’s leading scorer this season. “I hate losing more than anything.”

The first loss of Redick’s college career started pretty well. Duke was up 13-3 and Redick had two 3-pointers in the opening 2:46 in the Blue Devils’ first visit to Maryland’s new Comcast Center.

Maryland (10-4, 3-1) countered with an 11-0 run, but Duke straightened things out to take a 43-37 halftime lead.

The Terrapins opened the second half with a 6-0 run and the Blue Devils, who had won 14 of their last 17 games in College Park, suddenly looked like a team that could lose a game.

“We should have come out so fired up in the second half and instead we gave up six points in 40 seconds,” Krzyzewski said. “Maryland played like a veteran team and we played like a young team.”

Redick sounded like a veteran of more than just 13 college games when he was asked if he considered this game he and his classmates’ welcome to the ACC.

“We have to learn when you are No. 1 and when you are one of the top programs in the country that everybody is going to come after you,” he said. “We’re at the top of the hill and we have been there the last few years. Maryland is right there with us. We have to learn to give 100 percent effort every day.”

Road game No. 2 for the Blue Devils is Wednesday night at North Carolina State.

“I know I have a work in progress,” Krzyzewski said. “We’re concerned about everything.”