DURHAM, NC– It was an abnormally cold day on Feb. 15 when the Maryland Terrapins headed to the most intimidating arena in all of college basketball: Cameron Indoor Stadium. The Terps tried to defeat the eighth ranked Duke Blue Devils in the last Atlantic Coastal Conference match-up the two teams would ever play, since Maryland will make the move to the Big Ten conference on July 1.

After digging out of Winter Storm Pax, the stage was set in Durham and almost all attendees wore blue at Cameron Indoor Stadium, with a few specks of red here and there. The game started off and tensions were high. Duke’s student section, the Cameron Crazies, was incredibly distracting and fired up for the last battle between the two rivals. Duke came out on a roll and freshman star Jabari Parker instantly brought the house down with a layup and an extra free throw after getting fouled early on.

After Parker scored a three-pointer, it wasn’t looking good for Maryland fans as the Blue Devils went up 8-2 and were dominating play. After sophomore Amile Jefferson hit a jump shot to put Duke up 15-6, the Devils were carrying all of the momentum. However, Terp forward Jake Layman tried to keep his team in the game by hitting clutch free throws and playing aggressively. Layman ended the night with an impressive 18 points and six rebounds.

With 3:39 remaining in the first half, Layman missed a three-pointer but Nick Faust was right there to slam it home and shock the Duke crowd. On the next drive, Layman had a dunk of his own to cut the deficit to four.

Just before halftime, however, Blue Devil Tyler Thornton hit a pair of free throws and Andre Dawkins hit a three-pointer to make the game 39-33 at the half. Duke fans remained calm and the few Maryland fans scattered across the stadium remained hopeful for an upset.

The second half kicked off and Maryland forward Charles Mitchell hit a pair of baskets to cut the Duke lead to 39-37. Just when the momentum seemed to have switched sides, Duke’s Rodney Hood hit a big three-pointer to put the Devils back up by five points. With 14:57 left in the game, Parker hit four free throws for the Blue Devils to make the lead 47-38.However, the Terps were not done yet and both Layman and guard Dez Wells hit two jumpers to cut the lead back down to five. The game went back and forth for another five minutes until Maryland finally started to overpower the favored Blue Devils. Wells hit a huge jumper and drew a foul to add three points and to tie the game at 52.

Duke fans were becoming restless and a few Maryland chants started before being overpowered by “Let’s go Duke” and “Here we go Devils” chants. Then, with 8:27 left, Wells hit a layup to put the Terps up two and to silence the crowd. The game continued to go back and forth and Layman hit a pair of free throws to put the Terps up 60-59 with just under five minutes to go.

After losing his temper earlier, coach Mark Turgeon put Charles Mitchell back in the game, which instantly had a large impact. With 1:19 to go and a 67-66 Maryland lead, Duke’s Jabari Parker absolutely fired up the crowd with a monstrous dunk over two Terp players.

The dunk was a game-changer but with 21 seconds left, Duke’s Amile Jefferson missed a jumper as the shot clock winded down and a shot clock violation was issued to Duke. It was the Terrapins’ ball with six seconds to go and not a single person in the stadium was sitting down. The Terps quickly moved down the court and gave the ball to Mitchell who posted up on a Duke defender and shot a ball that bounced once on the rim, hit the backboard and then bounced twice on the rim again before bouncing off the hoop.

The stadium went crazy and Duke had won the game. The Terps’ heartbreaking loss lowered their record to 14-12 and Duke improved to 20-5 and moved up to the fifth spot in the rankings on Sunday. Fans ended the game by chanting “ACC” and “Not our rivals” to tease the heartbroken Terrapins one last time before never seeing each other again.

For the Terrapins, it has been a rough season and Mitchell’s last shot will most likely haunt him in the upcoming weeks. The Blue Devils take on number one Syracuse at home on Saturday and the Terps take on Syracuse just two days after on Feb. 24.