GREENSBORO, N.C. — The shot clock winding down and his team protecting a slim lead, Duke’s Jeremy Roach summoned some March magic and helped put away No. 14 Miami on Friday night.
A junior guard who hit big shots during Duke’s Final Four run last spring, Roach’s 3-pointer as the shot clock expired with 1:32 to play gave the No. 21 Blue Devils a seven-point lead, and they hung on to defeat Miami, 85-78, in the ACC tournament semifinals at Greensboro Coliseum.
No. 4 seed Duke (25-8), riding an eight-game winning streak with wins in 11 of its past 13 games, advances to Saturday night’s ACC tournament championship game at 8:30 p.m. to face either No. 3 seed Clemson or No. 2 seed Virginia.
Having led the entire second half and the final seven minutes of the first half, Duke held a 75-71 lead with the clock ticking below two minutes. Just before the shot clock expired, Roach drilled a 3-pointer giving Duke a 78-71 lead with 92 seconds to play.
After Nijel Pack scored for top-seeded Miami, Whitehead’s layup at 1:02 gave Duke an 80-73 lead. Miami pushed back when Anthony Walker scored, drew a foul from Filipowski and hit a free throw with 53.9 seconds left.
But Mitchell was fouled while Duke struggled to get the ball across half-court against Miami’s press. He split two free throws and Duke led 81-76 with 46.6 seconds to play.
The Hurricanes missed two shots on their end and Roach, after being fouled with 30.7 seconds left, hit two free throws giving Duke a comfortable 83-76 lead.
The Blue Devils had five players score in double figures, led by Kyle Filipowski’s 17 points. Dariq Whitehead added 16 while Mark Mitchell had 15, Tyrese Proctor 14 and Roach 13.
ACC Player of the Year Isaiah Wong scored 22 points to lead the top-seeded Hurricanes (25-7). Jordan Miller scored 17.
Duke hit seven of its first 13 shots in the second half, including a trio of 3-pointers, but Wong was able to keep Miami close as the Blue Devils led 60-57 with 10:38 to play.
Wong tallied 12 points over the half’s first 10 minutes, scoring in a variety of ways with pull-up jumpers, 3-pointers and driving to draw a foul and hitting free throws.
One day after torching the nets with its best shooting day of the season, Duke made 57% of its first-half shots to take a 41-36 halftime lead.
Whitehead scored eight points in a reserve role while Mitchell scored seven points.
Miami hit 48.4% of its first-half shots as Miller tallied nine points.
Duke led 14-7 only to see Miami score nine consecutive points. When the Blue Devils built a 29-24 lead on Mitchell’s basket with 5:06 to play in the half, an 8-2 Hurricanes run put Miami up 32-31 on a Bensley Joseph layup.
But Duke closed the half on an 8-2 run as Whitehead drew a foul and hit three free throws to give Duke the lead. Dereck Lively’s rebound slam dunk off a Proctor miss extended Duke’s lead to 38-34. Whitehead drilled a 3-pointer with 37.4 seconds to go until halftime giving Duke a 41-36 lead.
