Duke ACC Tournament notes

GREENSBORO - Duke has played in four overtime games this season, with only one loss to Florida State on Jan. 29.

Blue Devils' coach Joanne P. McCallie said that loss "feels like a long time ago," but her team has the second-seeded and 12th-ranked Seminoles to deal with again on Saturday in the semifinals of the ACC Tournament.

The teams will face each other for the 37th time overall at the Greensboro Coliseum at 3:30 p.m.

Duke owns a 5-0 record against FSU in the ACC Tournament.

The Devils lead the all-time series 28-8, though a victory is far from certain against the scrappy Seminoles, who showed balance scoring and sharp team-defense against Boston College on Friday.

The Seminoles have a No. 2 tournament seed for the first time in program history and have secured signiture upsets in conference play during the regular season. They have confidence and the imposing post players to give the Devils fits.

They did so at home in January. 

"We didn't execute defensively," McCallie said. "We let players score all over the place in that game. It was very high scoring. We didn't get the job done. That's still painful."

If the Devils are to come out on top this time, they will need to revist the energized play of Friday night when they dominated Virginia from the opening tipoff.

McCallie pointed out that the Devils "played off each other defensively to ignite some things offensively," which will be key against the Seminoles.

Duke players seem motivated. They were focused on the task on Friday and their energy bubbled to the surface.

Despite a trip to the tournament final last season, the Devils  have not won a tournament title since 2003. 

"We want to win an ACC championship," Duke junior Joy Cheek said. "We haven't won one. I don't know how long it's been. It's been a long time. I think we have as a team just figured this is a new season. What we did in the regular seaon is past tense, so we do need to step it up and just come out hard."