BY STEVE HANF & BRET STRELOW
SALISBURY POST

CHARLOTTE — Many people were looking forward to a third matchup between No. 2 Maryland and No. 3 Duke in the ACC finals, but N.C. State spoiled those plans.

Even though Duke fans vocally showed their support for the Wolfpack once the upset looked possible, State’s players didn’t deny that they dashed the hopes of a dream matchup.

“Obviously, that’s what they wanted to see, the two best teams in the country other than Kansas,”State senior Archie Miller said. “We’re not here to be innocent bystanders, go out and wave to the crowd. We went out and played hard the last two days, and we have to put another one together.”

The Blue Devils have beaten the Wolfpack by a combined 50 points in two regular-season games, but Anthony Grundy’s performances in the last two contests have caught the eye of Duke guard Jason Williams.

“We’re really going to have to slow down Anthony Grundy,”he said. “He’s their heart, he’s what makes them go.”

Williams said he could tell from the beginning of Saturday’s first semifinal that the Wolfpack meant business.

Duke teammate Daniel Ewing admitted that he expected a different outcome.

“I thought we would see Maryland again tomorrow,”he said. “But N.C. State’s playing real great right now, they’re a good team.I think they deserved to win, they probably played harder.”

The Wolfpack plan to play with just as much intensity today against Duke.

Grundy said he and his teammates haven’t approached tournament play any differently than they did the regular season.

“We just did our daily routine and prepared the way we normally have this year,” Grundy said of State’s preparation for Saturday. “We felt we match up well against any team in our conference, and it’s a matter of us playing the way we’re capable.”

The Terrapins, who reached the ACC finals in 2000, haven’t won the tournament since 1984, when they beat Duke 74-62.

Maryland has reached the tournament semifinals eight years in a row.

“You never like to lose, but we’ve won a lot in a row and really in the last year or so we haven’t lost many,” Terp coach Gary Williams said. “So the feeling of a loss sometimes is a great motivator to prepare for what’s ahead.”

For now, that’s not a meeting with Duke.

But the two schools could meet up for the third time in Atlanta, where the Final Four takes place in three weeks.