A hungry Wake Forest team fighting for its postseason life pushed the Blue Devils to the brink of defeat before a volley of 3-pointers devoured Wake’s upset hopes. The BlueDevils’ 82-73 win puts them into today’s championship game againstMaryland, the only ACCteam to beat top-seeded Duke (26-4) in two seasons.

Wake, meanwhile, knows a tournament appearance is in the works. But whether it’s the NCAA or National Invitation Tournament hinged upon their performance against Duke. A good showing, yes, but a loss that left the fifth-seeded Demon Deacons at 17-14.

“I thought we came out aggressive, we were hungry,”Wake freshman Ervin Murray said. “I felt real good about what we did out there and I thought if we could have sustained it a little bit longer we could’ve pulled a ‘W’ off.”

Nate James and Mike Dunleavy Jr. made sure that didn’t happen. While first-team All-ACC selections Chris Carrawell and Shane Battier struggled with their shots, Dunleavy drilled a pair of 3-pointers in the first half, his 12 points keeping Duke withing striking range.

James didn’t score in the opening half, but he saved the Blue Devils with four 3-pointers to finish with 14 points. Wake pulled to within 68-65 with 5:10 left when James took a feed from Jason Williams and connected. On Duke’s next possession, Williams drew a double team and found James again, somehow left wide open.

He made Wake pay for the defensive lapse.

“Nate’s had a great year. What he did in the last 10 minutes was the same thing he’s done repeatedly throughout the year,”Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski said. “There are certain segments in a lot of our games when Nate was our best player and making the big plays. I just think it was his time, and instead of waiting until the next game and being down because he had not shot the ball well, he had the mental toughness to do it right now.”

Wake would not respond, and the Demon Deacons were left to ponder how they let Duke escape despite Battier andCarrawell combining to shoot 10-for-30 from the field.

“It’s frustrating because those guys haven’t really done much against us before,”said Wake’s Craig Dawson of James and Dunleavy. “Battier and Carrawell weren’t really carrying their load and they stepped up.”

Dunleavy’s heroics became necessary in the first half. Wake made seven of its first 11 shots for an 18-11 lead. Rafael Vidaurreta slammed home two points on the break, Robert O’Kelley sliced through the lane for an easy layup, Broderick Hicks drained an off-balance 3 — anything Wake wanted, it got.

“Usually Wake will set it up, run the play,”Carrawell said. “Today they pushed it up.”

And had the BlueDevils out of sorts. Five quick points off the bench by Dunleavy gave Duke its first lead since the opening possession at 32-30, but the Blue Devils misfired on their last eight shots of the first half.

Wake led 37-36 at halftime and jumped ahead 41-36 after a Josh Howard putback and O’Kelley layup. Then the 3s started flying.

Battier pulled Duke within 41-39 with his team’s first trey of the half and Williams made it a one-point game with his bomb a minute later.

Dunleavy rolled around a screen and connected for a 49-43 advantage and James pushed the lead back to six two minutes later with his first 3 of the half. Wake Forest’s offense didn’t disappear in the second half — Duke just kept making three points per possession to the Demon Deacons’ two.

“We knocked ’em down,”Carrawell said. “The first two games of this tournament we’ve really been shooting the ball well.”