GREENSBORO, N.C. (AP) - Kyle Filipowski had 17 points and 11 rebounds, Jeremy Roach hit a huge 3-pointer at the 1:32 mark and No. 21 Duke held off No. 14 Miami 85-78 in the New York Life Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament semifinals on Friday night.
Roach's 3 from the left wing over Isaiah Wong with the shot clock going down proved to be the biggest shot, giving Duke a 78-71 lead that Miami couldn't overcome in a well-played matchup that often resembled a second-weekend NCAA Tournament game.
The fourth-seeded Blue Devils (25-8) did enough late to stay in control, closing out their eighth straight win and earning their 17th trip to the title game in the past 25 tournaments.
This one comes in the debut run of first-year coach Jon Scheyer, who replaced retired Hall of Famer Mike Krzyzewski and has Duke within a win of another title.
Tyrese Proctor hit two free throws with 9.8 seconds left, and Filipowski rebounded Wong's last-ditch 3-pointer to start Duke's celebration. Proctor raised his arms and motioned to the home-state crowd for more noise.
Wong had 22 points to lead the top-seeded Hurricanes (25-7), who suffered an immediate blow by losing starting forward Norchad Omier to an ankle injury just 66 seconds into the game.
Miami shot 46.8% for the game, with Wong and Jordan Miller (17 points) leading the attack.
Both teams had five players in double figures, with Duke getting 16 points from Dariq Whitehead and 15 from Proctor. The Blue Devils shot 54.9% a day after a season-best offensive output in a quarterfinal rout of Pittsburgh, including 8 of 16 from 3-point range.
BIG PICTURE
Duke: The Blue Devils hadn't allowed an opponent to reach 70 points during their winning streak. That run ended and Miami spent the game hovering around 50% shooting, yet the Blue Devils won because they played with composure and toughness.
Miami: The Hurricanes had lost just once since late January, falling at home to Florida State after blowing a 25-point lead on Feb. 25. The Hurricanes arrived in Greensboro as the tournament's No. 1 seed for only the second time in program history, the other coming a decade earlier when Miami completed a three-day run to the program’s lone ACC Tournament championship.
OMIER'S EXIT
Omier, a 6-foot-7 third-year sophomore and third-team All-ACC selection, came in averaging 14 points and a team-high 9.8 rebounds.
He went down when he rebounded a missed free throw, landing on the foot of Duke’s Dereck Lively II and rolling his right ankle. That sent him falling to the court and banging his hands on the hardwood in pain.
Omier was helped to the bench, then needed help just to get on his feet before being assisted to the tunnel toward the locker room. The team later tweeted he was out for the game but break any bones.
UP NEXT
Duke: Will play in Saturday night’s championship game against the Clemson-Virginia winner.
Miami: Awaits its NCAA Tournament seeding.
Noting Friday Night’s Semifinals – Game 1
Fourth-seeded Duke (25-8) advanced to Saturday night’s 8:30 p.m. ACC New York Life ACC Tournament championship game and will face the winner of Friday evening’s second semifinal between No. 2 seed Virginia (24-6) and No. 3 Clemson (23-9). The Blue Devils lost 72-64 in the regular-season meeting at Clemson on Jan. 14 and dropped a 69-62 overtime decision at Virginia on Feb. 11
- Duke, which is the all-time winningest program in the New York Life ACC Tournament with 109 wins reached the finals for the 35th time, tying North Carolina for the most in league history. The Blue Devils will seek to add to their current conference record of 21 ACC Tournament titles on Saturday night.
- The Blue Devils’ Jon Scheyer will attempt to become the third first-year head coach in league history to guide his team to the New York Life ACC Tournament championship. Scheyer would join Duke’s Vic Bubas (1960) and North Carolina’s Bill Guthridge (1998).
- Duke is now 101-40 all-time at the Greensboro Coliseum and is 43-18 all-time in ACC Tournament games played at the venue.
- The Hurricanes (25-7) slipped to 19-18 all-time in the ACC Tournament, including a 12-8 mark in Greensboro, where they claimed the championship in 2013. Miami reached the semifinals for the fifth time since joining the ACC in 2004-05 and for the second consecutive year.
- Miami is now 12-3 in the ACC Tournament when playing a lower-seeded team and 13-11 in the tournament under current head coach Jim Larrañaga. The Hurricanes are now 1-4 in tournament semifinal games.
- With his 17 points and 11 rebounds, ACC Rookie of the Year Kyle Filipowski recorded his 15th double-double of the season, which leads all freshmen nationally. Filipowski went 8-for-9 from the floor Friday night and is 16-for-19 in his first two ACC Tournament games.
- After recording an ACC-record 27 assists as a team in Thursday’s quarterfinal win over Pitt, Duke added 16 on Friday night. The 43 assists are one shy of the two-game tournament record of 44 set by North Carolina in the 2017 tournament in Brooklyn.
- The Blue Devils are 64-for-109 (.5872) from the floor so far in the New York Life ACC Tournament. That’s Duke’s best figure through the first two games of the tournament in its history.
- Duke has scored 85 or more points in its first two games in an ACC Tournament. It’s the fourth time the Blue Devils have done so and the first such occurrence since 2004.
- Duke is the first team to score 85 points or more in its first two ACC Tournament games since Boston College in 2018.
- ACC Player of the Year Isaiah Wong of Miami led all scorers with 22 points. It was the fourth-year junior’s 34th career game with 20 points or more and his 10th this season.
- Friday night’s game was a rematch of last year’s semifinal game in Brooklyn, in which then top-seeded Duke defeated the fourth-seeded Hurricanes, 80-76.
- All of four games of the Duke-Miami series in the tournament have been decided by seven or fewer points. Only two other series (Maryland-Virginia and Florida State-Georgia Tech) have that distinction. In all, 47 series have been played four or more times.
- The No. 4 seed is now 13-24 all-time against the No. 1 seed in ACC Tournament semifinal games.