GREENSBORO -- In the final minutes of Saturday's game, J.J. Redick joined his teammates in a huddle on the right block and got in the face of senior teammate Sean Dockery. Only this time, he had a big grin on his face--the Blue Devils looked loose and each of them was smiling.
After a difficult and trying month for the Blue Devils, during which they lost their final two regular season games and have faced questions from the media for getting preferential treatment from officials, the expressions on the Duke players' faces was a telling sign. The Blue Devils were enjoying themselves on the basketball court again.
"We were definitely having more fun," Redick said. "The second half was the best we've played in a while just as a team, just playing together as a group. Guys were connecting out there. Greg had some passes that were connecting plays. Even our huddles and stuff, we had really good huddles."
No. 3 Duke (29-3) outscored Wake Forest (17-16) by 14 in the second half on its way to a 78-66 victory in the ACC Tournament semifinals at the Greensboro Coliseum. The Blue Devils advanced to their ninth straight conference championship game, where they will face league newcomer Boston College Sunday.
The 11th-ranked Eagles narrowly defeated No. 10 North Carolina, 85-82, in the other semifinal matchup Saturday.
Duke played its best defense in several games and only turned the ball over five times, both of which were major factors in the win, head coach Mike Krzyzewski said.
After Justin Gray hit a jumper in the lane with 11:20 left in the second half, the Blue Devils' defense clamped down. Duke held the Demon Deacons to just two field goals over the next eight minutes, while it extended a five-point lead to a 13-point advantage.
The play of the Blue Devils' two starting freshmen, though, sparked Duke.
Redick called Greg Paulus' game his best as a Blue Devil, and the same could be said about Josh McRoberts, who was active and aggressive on both ends of the court.
Paulus finished with a career-high 18 points and matched his best rebounding total of the season with seven. He dished out another five assists, giving him 10 for the tournament, and his only turnover of the game was the first of the weekend.
"Greg continued to play like he did on Friday, he just played like a veteran point guard today," Krzyzewski said. "For that stretch in the second half towards the beginning--the first six, seven minutes of the first half--he made some great plays, which gave all of us confidence."
Paulus took the ball to the basket with consistency Saturday, something that Krzyzewski said he has been doing more regularly in practice, as well. Coming off the court for a timeout, the freshman even asked his coach to call a play for him. Krzyzewski promptly ignored the request but was nonetheless happy to see his point guard being so assertive, he said.
The Blue Devils endured a scary moment with 12:08 left in the first half. On a play in which he was called for a blocking foul, Redick banged knees with Trent Strickland and was slow to get up. He tried to play through the pain, but was moving gingerly, so he was taken out of the game and went back to the locker room to receive treatment. He emerged with 7:49 remaining in the period, wearing a black knee brace on his right knee, and immediately reentered the game.
"I decided to go back to the locker room and just work it out a little bit, spend some time moving back there," said Redick, who played all 20 minutes in the second half. "The pain was gone, otherwise I would have stayed back there longer, and it didn't bother me at all once I got back out on the court."
Just as Redick was heading to the locker room, Shelden Williams picked up his second foul, sending Duke's other star to the bench. The rest of the Blue Devils weathered the storm, though, and still had a two-point margin when Redick returned.
"It's not like those other guys are plumbers, not that I've got anything against plumbers," Wake Forest head coach Skip Prosser said. "They were some of the most coveted high school players in the country. Those other guys are really good, too."
A 9-2 run gave the Blue Devils some breathing room to start the second half. And once Duke built its lead in the second half, it was evident that the Blue Devils were playing looser than they had in some time. A Redick skip pass found McRoberts for a reverse jam, the freshman slammed in a Redick missed three, and then Paulus found him for a dunk on a backdoor cut.
"The team was one out there, everybody was connected," Paulus said. "Guys were passing, cutting, everybody getting a touch, everyone feeling like they were a part of it. The more we can do that, the better off and the more fun we're going to have."
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