As the final seconds ticked off the game clock Saturday night, Chris McCray gripped the basketball tight and let out a scream drowned out by the voices of more than 17,000 others.

When the final buzzer sounded, he threw the ball high in the air behind him, and by the time it landed, the jubilant Comcast Center crowd had poured onto the floor to share in the celebration of the Terrapins’ monumental 99-92 overtime win over No. 7-ranked Duke.

“It was wonderful,” said junior point guard John Gilchrist, who was briefly hoisted upon the crowd’s shoulders along with McCray. “I can’t really put it in words. I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t know to laugh, cry, pass out. Those moments are priceless. Those are the type of things that you’re going to cherish for the rest of your life.”

For the first time since 1995, the Terps swept the regular season series from the Blue Devils. For the first time in 23 years, the Terps have now downed Duke three times in a row.

This, men’s basketball coach Gary Williams said, was what he had in mind when he took over a struggling, sanction-ridden Terp program more than a decade ago.

“Nobody respects their program more than me, because when I came here in ’89 we had to set our sights high if we were going to get out of the mess we were in. Duke and Carolina were the two we looked at because over the last 50 years they’ve been two of the top programs in the country. I always think about that,” Williams said. “To win that game was special. That was special.”

The Terps (15-7, 6-5 ACC) simply wore Duke down this time. Five Blue Devils fouled out of the contest, leaving the team to put three little-used reserves on the court at the end of overtime.

Meanwhile, the Terps had plenty of fire power.

Gilchrist led six players in double figures while barely missing his second straight triple-double. He had 19 points, 10 rebounds and nine assists. Travis Garrison recorded his second career double-double with 17 points and 11 rebounds.

Mike Jones contributed 15 much-needed points off the bench, including eight straight during one stretch. Ekene Ibekwe, expected to miss the game due to a cracked rib, played a key role with 11 points, five rebounds and two blocks.

And McCray (17 points) sealed it, knocking down all six of his free throws at the end of overtime.

“One of the reasons why we feel so good as a team right now is everybody chipped in some way,” said junior forward Nik Caner-Medley, who had 11 points and nine rebounds. “It’s just a great team win.”

After trailing most of the contest, Duke (18-3, 8-3) took the largest lead of the night, 73-64, with nine minutes, 43 seconds to play in the second half.

Recently reinserted into the game, Jones went to the line after Duke’s Daniel Ewing was called for a technical foul.

The normally sure-handed Jones winced as his first attempt clanked off the rim. But the sophomore guard responded by scoring the game’s next eight points.

Taking the outlet pass near halfcourt, he dribbled a few steps and swished a 3-pointer from the wing to pull the Terps back to within one at 73-72.

“I think he won the game for us,” said McCray, who tied the contest a couple of minutes later. “When they had that little run, the fans got down and we kind of stopped being aggressive. Then we got back down one, and the crowd got back into it. He got the players back into it too.”

The lead swapped sides three more times. The Terps trailed by four with 1:36 to play when Gilchrist received a pass from Jones under the basket and scored on a layup while being fouled. He completed the three-point play to pull the Terps within one.

Following a Duke timeout, J.J. Redick — the target of a vociferous student section — airballed a 3-pointer with McCray playing tight defense on him, much to the glee of the crowd. Redick had 21 points but again struggled against the Terps, shooting a meager 5-of-19 from the field.

With regulation drawing to a close and the Terps still trailing, Garrison had a clean shot at the basket but his layup rolled off the rim. Before anyone could grab the rebound, Ibekwe pushed it back in while drawing contact from Duke’s Shelden Williams.

The play was successful on two fronts for the Terps, as it gave the team a two-point lead after Ibekwe sank the ensuing foul shot, and it marked the end of Williams’ night. The Duke forward, who had 23 points and 16 rebounds, fouled out.

Duke tied the game at 88 on a layup by DeMarcus Nelson, but with Duke’s Williams relegated to the bench Caner-Medley said the Terps felt confident heading into overtime.

The Blue Devils’ foul issues escalated in the extra session as guard Daniel Ewing took his 23 points to the bench after picking up his fifth foul 13 seconds into overtime. Less than two minutes later, Lee Melchionni took a seat as well.

Shavlik Randolph had fouled out earlier in the game and Sean Dockery was called for his fifth foul near the end of overtime, forcing Duke to play Ross Perkins, Patrick Davidson and Patrick Johnson — a trio that had accumulated a combined 76 minutes all season.

Duke didn’t manage a field goal in overtime as the Terps opened on a 7-2 run and sealed the game at the foul line. McCray, the ACC’s second-best free throw shooter, hit all 10 of his attempts from the line in the contest.

“It doesn’t get any better than this in college basketball,” Caner-Medley said in the aftermath of the victory.

He said all he heard in the preseason was, “Good luck, have a great season, please beat Duke.”

The Terps have done that more often that anybody else over the past six seasons — seven times to be exact. No other team has more than three wins over Duke in that span.

“You don’t gloat about it. You just feel good because you beat a good program,” Williams said. “They never let you win. You have to win the game. They never give it to you. Some teams give it to you once in a while — not Duke.”

The Blue Devils have brought out the best in the Terps in what has been an inconsistent, unpredictable season. The Terps’ victory last month in Durham followed their worst home loss of the season. This win gives the team two straight following losses at Clemson and Miami.

“The players never quit,” Williams said. “There’s been times this year when we could have. But we never have and we never will.”