CHARLOTTE— No one from Duke or Wake Forest called it hand-to-hand combat, as Virginia head coach Pete Gillen remarked Friday night after his team lost a physical game.

Still, plenty of bodies flew around the court in the BlueDevils’ 72-63 win Saturday in the first semifinal game of the Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament.

The game’s most tense moment came with 1:28 to go and Wake trailing 76-67. Duke’s Nate James reached out and batted a pass away, then took off for an open fast-break layup. Josh Howard raced back to stop the dunk attempt and knocked James into a row of photographers. An intentional foul was called.

“That’s just in the course of the game,”Wake’s Ervin Murray said. “Guys get frustrated, everybody’s just going out and competing and trying to play hard. I thought he was just trying to stop the shot. He might’ve gone about it in a better way, but he did what we needed him to do — stop the shot. I know both teams were kind of upset.”

James was fine, but his teammates rallied around him and let Howard know the shove was a little harder than necessary. When Blue Devil senior Chris Carrawell said something to Howard, theDemonDeacon freshman had to be restrained by teammates from letting his frustrations get the better of him.

“It’s all talk,”Carrawell said. “They played a great game and it kind of got frustrating for us to come back. That was in the heat of the moment. Sometimes you get frustrated and that’s what happens. I was like, ‘Come on, man, what are you doing?’ Nate could’ve gotten hurt, too.”

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NICETOSEEYOUAGAIN: With favored teams falling left and right in college tournaments across the nation, all is right in the ACCworld.

The weekend’s most anticipated matchup became a reality: No. 1 Duke against No. 2 Maryland in today’s championship game. It’s their first meeting since the Terrapins stunned Duke 98-87 in Durham, ending the Blue Devils’ 31-game ACCwinning streak.

“We were very confident in that game and hopefully we’ll have the same confidence tomorrow,”said Maryland head coach Gary Williams after his team beat N.C. State 64-61 in Saturday’s semifinal matchup. “Having won a game against them this year, at least when you talk to your team you’re not talking about something that hasn’t happened before. It did happen and maybe we can make the same thing happen if we play as well as we did down there.”

Despite Maryland’s No. 2 seeding, it’s almost an upset theTerrapins made it to Sunday. The past five seasons saw the Terps lose in the semifinals, and the last Maryland team to make the championship game was the last team to win it: in 1984.

“It’s a great feeling. I know Maryland hasn’t been since 1984, so I’m very proud of what we’ve done,”center Lonny Baxter said. “I’m not celebrating yet. We’re going to come in tomorrow really focused and really trying to get this game.”

To do that, Baxter’s bunch will have to top a Duke team eager to wipe out the only ACCteam it’s lost to in two years. And besides, last year’s championship was so much fun that the Devils want to do it again.

“I want to win it back to back,”said forward Chris Carrawell after Saturday’s 72-63 win over Wake Forest. “Not too many teams have done that, and for us to win tomorrow would be huge.”

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up in the air: Wake Forest had to play well in the ACCTournament to get a shot at the NCAATournament. But one upset and one close loss still may not have been enough.

“It’s really hard to say right now,”Wake’s Craig Dawson said. “Hopefully we gave a good enough show to let the committee think about putting us in, but either way we feel like we’re going to play next weekend. Games are games, and we’re going to be able to play either way.”

TheDemon Deacons kept their NCAA hopes alive Friday night by beating No. 4 seed North Carolina, considered the league’s third team for the field of 64. While playing with Duke for 35 minutes was a worthy effort, Wake’s 17-14 record is probably a game or two short.

Likewise for N.C. State, which did a great job in Friday night’s win against Virginia, likely the fourth NCAAteam from the conference. The Wolfpack lost by three points to the second-seeded Terrapins on Saturday to finish 17-12

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i do what i want! One of the reasons Maryland couldn’t pull away from N.C. State in the semifinal matchup was because of foul trouble to star guard Juan Dixon.

Dixon, averaging 17.9 points a game, scored 10 in the first half and had just one foul. But he picked up two fouls in the first four minutes of the second half and left the game at the eight-minute mark after a charge.

In his place stood freshman Drew Nicholas. who averages 15 minutes and five points a game. But the youngster wasn’t afraid to shoot, knocking down 3 of 4 attempts from the 3-point arc.

“When I wasn’t yelling at him … ,” Williams started to say. “Drew is one of those guys, he’ll look you right in the eye and you know he’s listening to what you say, but you also know when he’s out there on the court, if he’s open, he’s going to take the shot.

“He got open today and we found him and he hit it. That’s a tough situation for a freshman to be in that doesn’t start and doesn’t play a whole lot of minutes every game.”

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