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GREENSBORO — You don't hear basketball teams say they hope they play like they did at Cameron Indoor Stadium often, but that's the case with enigmatic Maryland.

The Terps eliminated N.C. State 75-67 on Thursday in the first round of the ACC tournament and play Duke at 7 p.m. tonight in the quarterfinals.

The Terps had lost three straight before Thursday, and their 7-9 league record is a puzzler in a year when the ACC is hardly at its best. Maryland has a great post player in Jordan Williams, a rising star in freshman point guard Terrell Stoglin and a stable of athletes who should be capable of competing with anyone.

Including Duke. In a Jan. 9 game in Durham, Maryland clamped down on Nolan Smith and held him to 5-of-18 from the field. The Terps were within 55-54 with under seven minutes left before Kyle Singler led a Duke charge to win it.

"At Cameron, we were hyped up," senior wing Cliff Tucker said. "That's the game we showed we could play with any team in the country."

There were times this season Maryland showed it could lose to almost anybody, too. The rematch with Duke in College Park was an 80-62 loss.

"I remember in Durham we came out with an aggressive attitude. We didn't care who they were," Terps center Jordan Williams said. "The second game, we came out flat. It's best to come out with that same vibe we had in Durham."

In both Duke games, the Blue Devil who killed Maryland was Singler. He hit 10 of 19 shots for 25 points in Cameron, and burned the Terps for 22 points, on 10-of-15 shooting, in College Park.

But that was Singler's last big offensive game. Since then, Singler has made only 44 of 125 shots as he comes into the tournament in an extended slump.

The Terps aren't saying anything negative about Singler — they know what he can do — but they are saying they have a real chance to win.

"We haven't beaten a lot of good teams, but we've been right there," Tucker said.

The Terps were right there in Cameron, and that fuels their confidence coming into tonight.