Duke and Florida State meet in ACC semifinals

Mar 10, 2012 - 3:52 PM Atlanta, GA (Sports Network) - The third-seeded Florida State Seminoles will try to deny the Duke Blue Devils a chance at a fourth straight title as the two square off in the semifinals of the Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament at Philips Arena.

FSU and Duke split their regular season series, with the visiting team stealing road victories in each of their encounters. The Seminoles ended Duke's 45-game home winning streak with a 76-73 victory at Cameron Indoor Stadium on Jan. 21. The Blue Devils retaliated by defeating FSU, 74-66, in Tallahassee on Feb. 23. Duke holds a 31-7 lead in the all-time series.

The Seminoles opened up their postseason on Friday with an 82-71 victory over Miami in the quarterfinal round. FSU has now scored 80 points or more in its last two games after being held to under that mark for 11 straight games. The 2012 ACC Coach of the Year Leonard Hamilton was disappointed he could not guide FSU to a regular season title, but he can make up for it by bringing home the conference tourney trophy. The Seminoles got off to a great start, as they avenged their 16-point loss to the Hurricanes from Feb. 26 by draining 16-of-25 from beyond the arc in their bout Friday. FSU outscored its opponents by an average of 7.6 ppg this season.

Duke was not overly impressive in its postseason debut on Friday. The Blue Devils shot just 37 percent from the field as they barely got past the 10th- seeded Virginia Tech Hokies in a low scoring, 60-56 affair. Coach Mike Krzyzewski will need his team to raise its efforts against the hot-shooting Seminoles if Duke is going to win its fourth ACC Tournament in a row. The Blue Devils should be able to improve their offensive performance going forward, as their heavy reliance on three-point shooting for production was the main reason for their troubles on Friday after they made only 5-of-26 shots from distance.

Michael Snaer has had a tremendous season while leading FSU. The junior guard buried the Blue Devils with a three-pointer at the buzzer in Durham, and his recent play suggests that could happen again. Snaer knocked down 5-of-8 from beyond the arc on his way to a game-high 20 points versus Miami on Friday. Ian Miller, who has recently emerged as an excellent secondary option, tied his career high with 18 points off the bench. Forward Bernard James and point guard Luke Loucks both had strong contributions in the quarterfinal round win as well.

While most of Duke's opponents have not had an answer on how to stop the Blue Devils' insanely talented backcourt duo of Seth Curry and Austin Rivers, Virginia Tech frustrated both on Friday. Rivers, the ACC Freshman of the Year, managed to score a game-high 17 points, but he went 5-of-14 from the floor to do so. Curry did not get too many open looks and ended the contest with nine points. The Hokies helped off of Tyler Thornton to focus on Curry and Rivers, which left the third starting guard wide open throughout the night. Thornton was not shy when he got the ball, and fortunately for Duke his 5-of-16 shooting from the field was enough to survive Virginia Tech. Without starting forward Ryan Kelly in the lineup, Mason Plumlee recorded a double-double with 12 points and 10 boards.