Semi Survival

GREENSBORO

Duke survived eight frazzled and sometimes chaotic final minutes yesterday by making just enough shots and free throws to outlast Miami in the ACC Tournament semifinals.

The Blue Devils held on for a 77-74 victory at the Greensboro Coliseum to advance to the championship game for the second consecutive season. They led by 16 points with 11:52 left and were up 62-48 with nine minutes left, but a change in strategy helped the Hurricanes cut into the difference.

Duke, ahead 64-53, went to a spread offense and tried to use most of the 35-second shot clock to run off time. Duke had three shot-clock violations from waiting too late in possessions to initiate the offense, which helped Miami cut the lead to five points five times.

"We could have been playing not to lose a little bit, instead of trying to put a dagger in them and stay aggressive," said point guard Jon Scheyer. "If we had executed right, we could have had a couple of buckets. We didn't handle it as players on the court as well as we should have."

Each time the Hurricanes cut the difference to five, the Blue Devils responded with points. Nolan Smith's 15-foot jumper with 54.4 seconds left built the lead to 70-63 and was the Blue Devils' last basket, but seven made free throws in eight attempts protected the lead until the Hurricanes' last 3-pointer with 2.8 seconds left sliced the difference to three.

Duke improved to 28-5 and got a shot at winning its ninth ACC Tournament title in 12 seasons. Miami fell to 20-13.

Duke will play Georgia Tech in today's 1 p.m. championship game.

The Blue Devils surged immediately after halftime to wipe out Miami's 35-32 lead behind Kyle Singler, who drilled consecutive 3-pointers that gave Duke the lead for good with 18:59 left.

Singler scored 27 points, with 17 coming after halftime.

"Singler just kind of took the game over," said Coach Frank Haith of Miami.

Scheyer scored16 points for the Blue Devils and Smith 12. Freshman Durand Scott led the Hurricanes with 21 points.

Duke won with at least accidental help from its coach. A 15-0 scoring run generated a 58-42 lead and came in the aftermath of a technical foul on Mike Krzyzewski.

The call came with 2:07 left in the first half, with Duke ahead 32-27 after being up 30-18. Krzyzewski complained after Smith was called for walking. Official Roger Ayers made the call.

"I don't call technicals, so I don't know why the technical was called on me," Krzyzewski said. "So to ask me why a technical was called on me means that I can read someone's mind. And I can't do that."

Reggie Johnson, a redshirt freshman from Winston-Salem, made one of two free throws on the technical. Scott hit from six feet in the lane and the lead was down to two points.

Duke missed its next two shots and Smith was called for another turnover for palming the ball, all on the same possession, and Krzyzewski took off the coat to his suit.

He stood on the sideline and clapped as his players ran down the floor to play defense. Johnson was fouled and made two free throws that tied the score, and Malcolm Grant hit a 3-pointer with four seconds left to put Miami ahead.

Krzyzewski said that he told his players at halftime to play basketball and worry about nothing else. He encouraged them to concentrate on the matters they could control and to be more forceful on offense.

The attack began on the Blue Devils' first play of the second half, when Singler hit a 3-pointer from the left baseline.

Krzyzewski wouldn't say if the technical foul helped motivate his team.

"It wasn't an orchestrated thing," Krzyzewski said. "It was no motivational ploy at all on my part."

Scheyer said that the technical did affect the players and at least helped them play harder after halftime.

"When you see your coach put himself out there for you, you want to respond to that," Scheyer said. "There's never been a coach that's been so behind us all the time, so we just want to be there for him.

"He just told us to go out and play basketball. It had nothing to do with, `Coach got a technical, let's go out there and be crazy.' We were just playing basketball, and we wanted to have his back."

bcole@wsjournal.com.

MIAMI Min FG-A FT-A OR-T A PF Pts

Scott 35 10-15 0-1 0-4 3 5 21

Dews 31 3-6 0-0 0-0 1 1 8

Jones 22 2-9 2-4 0-2 0 1 7

Johnson 28 3-6 8-10 4-8 0 4 14

Gamble 20 2-4 0-0 1-2 0 3 4

Grant 24 4-10 6-6 0-2 4 0 17

McGowan 10 0-1 0-0 0-1 0 2 0

Adams 4 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0

Thomas 26 1-4 0-0 1-4 2 3 3

Totals 200 25-55 16-21 6-24 10 19 74

Percentages: FG .455, FT .762; 3-Point Goals: 8-15, .533 (Grant 3-5, Dews 2-4, Jones 1-1, Scott 1-2, Thomas 1-3); Team Rebounds: 1; Blocked Shots: 4 (Johnson 2, Jones, Thomas); Turnovers: 8 (Gamble 2, Scott 2, Grant 2, Johnson, Dews); Steals: 4 (Scott 2, Gamble, Jones); Technical Fouls: None

DUKE Min FG-A FT-A OR-T A PF Pts

Smith 31 6-14 0-1 1-2 3 4 12

Singler 39 8-15 6-6 3-8 6 2 27

Scheyer 38 4-10 6-9 0-6 4 2 16

Thomas 26 2-4 0-0 1-5 1 3 4

Zoubek 28 1-1 5-6 2-6 1 2 7

MaPlumlee 16 2-3 0-0 2-6 1 2 4

Dawkins 9 0-3 0-0 0-0 0 2 0

MiPlumlee 12 3-4 1-2 0-1 0 2 7

Kelly 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0

Totals 200 26-54 18-24 12-38 16 19 77

Percentages: FG .481, FT .750; 3-Point Goals: 7-22, .318 (Singler 5-9, Scheyer 2-6, Dawkins 0-3, Smith 0-4); Team Rebounds: 4; Blocked Shots: 5 (Ma.Plumlee 2, Singler, Scheyer, Zoubek); Turnovers: 11 (Smith 3, Thomas 2, Scheyer 2, Singler, Dawkins, Zoubek); Steals: 5 (Scheyer 3, Ma.Plumlee, Smith); Technical Fouls: Bench.

Miami 35 39 -- 74
Duke 32 45 -- 77