CONWAY, S.C.— In the now-15-team ACC, it is not often that teams get two cracks at a conference foe with just 16 regular-season contests.
But after the Blue Devils completed series sweeps against both North Carolina and Wake Forest earlier in the year, they turned it on late Friday night to add to their total.
With a second victory against No. 6 seed Syracuse, Duke will now have a chance to take down seventh-seeded Miami for the second time in less than two weeks when the teams meet at 2:30 p.m. Saturday at the HTC Center. The No. 3 seed Blue Devils closed their quarterfinal win with a 26-7 run in the final 11:37—similar to the dominant 27-13 start that propelled them to victory against the Orange Feb. 10 in Durham.
And as Duke looks to return to the ACC tournament championship game for the first time since 2014—a berth that capped a stretch of six appearances in seven years—the Blue Devils will need to once again replicate a strong February performance in March.
"We have to be open to learning—see what we made mistakes with, what we did well," Duke guard Lexie Brown said. "Honestly, we have to come out and play hard. It’s postseason. They’re not the same team they were a week ago, we’re not the same team we were a week ago. We just really have to focus on ourselves."
Syracuse's numbers in both matchups against the Blue Devils (26-4) were eerily similar.
In neither game did the Orange (21-10) shoot better than 27.0 percent from either the field or beyond the 3-point arc. The ACC's second-best scoring offense entering Friday took 32 long-range attempts but hit on only seven—two off their league-high nine made triples per game.
Syracuse also collected 18 more offensive rebounds to add to their 15 from the first contest. And defensively, the Orange's press defense forced a sloppy Duke offense into 18 turnovers—similar to the Blue Devils' 20 giveaways just three Fridays ago.
But despite early mistakes, Duke will live to see another day.
Just 16 hours removed from their ninth straight win, the Blue Devils will return to the Coastal Carolina campus to battle the Hurricanes (23-7) for a second time.
"[Miami] has a lot of great guard play, a lot of strong post play—a really physical team," senior Oderah Chidom said. "We’re going to focus on defense and rebounding, doing the same thing shutting down the gaps. They’re really good at penetrating. So [we’ll] just watch film tonight and then get ready for them tomorrow."
The Hurricanes jumped out to a 33-25 halftime advantage against No. 2 seed Florida State in the first of Friday evening's quarterfinal games and held on down the stretch even as the Seminoles sliced the margin to two in the final seconds.
When Duke hosted Miami last month, it was all Adrienne Motley on offense for the Hurricanes. The second-team All-ACC senior torched the Blue Devils for 23 points, including four 3-pointers, but Duke kept the rest of the Miami offense in check.
After the Hurricanes shot an efficient 14-of-29 from the field in the first half Friday against Florida State, though, the Blue Devils will need to be ready from the get-go in order to prevent a similar early surge to Miami's 14-0 run in the teams' first game.
"We need to learn how to play two halves," Duke head coach Joanne P. McCallie said. "[It was a] slow start—not really the first half that we wanted, but the team really connected in the second half and executed.... There’s something about not playing for a long time, coming off a Sunday game."
The Hurricanes shot just 34.3 percent from the field when the two sides met in Durham 13 days ago and could not turn 21 Blue Devils turnovers into a win.
With Duke playing one of its biggest games in the past three seasons, expect the Blue Devils to be ready from the tip this time around in their semifinal contest.
"It’s just feeding off our teammates—everyone doing their part playing their role, everyone giving energy," Chidom said. "It’s a lot of fun when everything is going well."
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Twitter: @mpgladstone13
A junior from just outside Philadelphia, Mitchell is probably reminding you how the Eagles won the Super Bowl this year and that the Phillies are definitely on the rebound. Outside of The Chronicle, he majors in Economics, minors in Statistics and is working toward the PJMS certificate, in addition to playing trombone in the Duke University Marching Band. And if you're getting him a sandwich with beef and cheese outside the state of Pennsylvania, you best not call it a "Philly cheesesteak."