The Duke Invitational sprung a leak.
Maryland, on the far reaches of the NCAA tournament bubble, scored one of the bigger upsets in recent ACC tournament history Friday night, drumming the Blue Devils 83-74 in the quarterfinals round. Coming out in a pressing defense, the Terrapins raced to a 12-2 lead and never trailed the entire game.
Second-seeded Duke, whose strong regular-season finish with the return of forward Ryan Kelly led many to tab the Blue Devils the NCAA tournament favorite, will miss the ACC semifinals for only the second time in the past 16 years. Duke had won 10 of the past 14 tournaments and had reached the title game each of the past six times that it was held in Greensboro. Maryland (22-11) also became the first team to beat the Blue Devils this season with Kelly in the lineup after 18 consecutive wins.
“I didn’t really envision this, to be honest with you, in my second year,” Maryland coach Mark Turgeon said.
The No. 7-seed Terrapins, whom Greensboro Coliseum fans have booed, presumably for the school’s decision to leave for the Big Ten, will play the Florida State-North Carolina winner at 3 p.m. Saturday. The Seminoles and Tar Heels played late Friday night.
The 1 p.m. semifinal will match top-seeded Miami and No. 5 seed N.C. State. The Hurricanes outlasted No. 8-seed Boston College 69-58 to advance to their second ACC semifinal. The Wolfpack eliminated fourth-seeded Virginia by a 75-56 count.
Trailing 34-26 at the half, the Blue Devils (27-5) quickly fell behind by 11 before rallying. They twice closed the gap to one point, the last time at 47-46 with 13:02 to play on a pair of Mason Plumlee free throws, before Maryland shoved back with a 18-6 run over the next 7:15 to put the game out of reach.
“We would have folded a couple weeks ago; we didn’t (Friday),” Turgeon said. “We’ve grown up.”
Maryland guard Dez Wells poured in a career-high 30 on the Blue Devils, shooting 9-for-13 from the field and 10-for-10 from the line. The Terrapins made 23 of its 25 free-throw attempts. The Terrapins, ranked 10th in the country in field-goal percentage defense, held Duke to 41.5 percent shooting.
Roughing up Virginia guard Joe Harris and receiving a lift from sharpshooter Scott Wood, the Wolfpack took out the Cavaliers in their ACC tournament quarterfinal Friday afternoon by a 75-56 score. After an up-and-down regular season, N.C. State may have plugged itself back into the source that powered last season’s Sweet 16 run.
“I think our team is beginning to find, you know, that groove,” N.C. State coach Mark Gottfried said. “I like to use that word. I think we’re getting in a good spot.”
The Wolfpack (24-9) coupled their typically streamlined offensive game with defensive grit. The Cavaliers gave N.C. State some help by missing a number of relatively easy shots, but still were held to 38.9 percent shooting, seven percentage points below their season average. Harris, the first-team All-ACC selection who entered the game averaging 17.0 points per game, was held to 13 points on 4-for-13 shooting against N.C. State’s physical defensive play.
“They weren’t making anything easy,” said Harris, who dinged the Wolfpack for 22 in their regular-season meeting. “If I had a down screen, they were trailing the cut, and they were playing tight. It was a little bit different.”
Wood made 3-pointers on three consecutive possessions early in the second half to build the Wolfpack lead from 11 to 16 points and start the getaway. He bombarded Virginia with 17 points in the half and 23 for the game to lead all scorers.
“When he gets going like that, I’m not sure there is a better shooter in the country,” Gottfried said of Wood, who became N.C. State’s all-time 3-point leader in the game, passing Rodney Monroe.
It sets up an intriguing matchup with Miami, which is stout at both ends of the floor and has size that should bother N.C. State. The Cavaliers (21-11) face intrigue of a different variety. With the loss, Virginia has placed itself at the mercy of the NCAA tournament selection committee, which will have to judge the merits of a team that defeated Duke, N.C. State, North Carolina and Wisconsin, yet somehow lost to Old Dominion, George Mason and Delaware.
Virginia coach Tony Bennett repeated a description of his team as the “Dos Equis bubble team.”
Said the coach, “We’re the most interesting bubble team in the world.”
Similar to its game against Georgia Tech on Thursday, Boston College (16-17) fell behind 13-2 and 23-11 against Miami before taking a 27-25 halftime lead. The Eagles stuck around nearly until the end, going into a timeout with 3:01 left in the game tied at 55. Boston College was attempting the first quarterfinal upset of a No. 1 seed since 1997.
Alas, Miami (25-6) finished the game on a 14-3 run.
“The last few minutes of execution is why they’re really good and why we’re trying to get there,” Boston College coach Steve Donahue said.
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